History of the Craft
From colonial quarries to contemporary family workshops: how stone work shaped the region's identity.
Cantera — a volcanic, igneous stone — has been a building material in central Mexico since before the arrival of the Spanish. Querétaro was one of the most active stone-carving regions in New Spain: the stone that shaped the temples, cloisters and portals that still define the historic center of Querétaro city — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — was extracted and carved here.
In communities of the Pedro Escobedo municipality — Escolásticas among them — the craft was passed from fathers to sons for generations, without schools or formal academies. Each workshop developed its own tools, templates and technical solutions: from the Solomonic column of Querétaro baroque to contemporary figurative sculpture, including fountains, balustrades, cornices and gates that are still commissioned by haciendas, private residences and public works across the country.
Alongside this tradition, with no spotlight but equal persistence, runs backstrap-loom weaving: a pre-Hispanic technique sustained by the women of the town. Today both streams coexist and increasingly cross paths in pieces that combine carved stone with a woven seat or back.
In communities of the Pedro Escobedo municipality — Escolásticas among them — the craft was passed from fathers to sons for generations, without schools or formal academies. Each workshop developed its own tools, templates and technical solutions: from the Solomonic column of Querétaro baroque to contemporary figurative sculpture, including fountains, balustrades, cornices and gates that are still commissioned by haciendas, private residences and public works across the country.
Alongside this tradition, with no spotlight but equal persistence, runs backstrap-loom weaving: a pre-Hispanic technique sustained by the women of the town. Today both streams coexist and increasingly cross paths in pieces that combine carved stone with a woven seat or back.