Traditional stone carvers chisel on despite loss of quarries in village swallowed by Mexico City

XOCHIACA, Mexico — The sound of hammers and chisels striking stone rings out on most Sundays in the cemetery of ancient Xochiaca, a village swallowed up decades ago by the urban sprawl of Mexico City.

It’s the sound of the stone carvers of Chimalhuacan — as the borough is known — who still pursue a craft passed down for generations, even after the local source of quarry stone was exhausted.

The village cemetery is filled with yard-high (meter-high) statues of saints and a knot of men who coax flower garlands and flowers out of the blocks of stone with their chisels.

Generations of stone carvers in Chimalhuacan, on Mexico’s City’s far east side, also created much of the stonework that adorns buildings and parks in the capital’s downtown.

While carvers in other areas long ago turned to mechanical cutters and polishers, the craftsmen here use only hammers, mallets and a variety of chisels and gouges.

Many are self-taught, but some, like Tomás Ugarte, 86, learned in the traditional way as handed down by fathers and grandfathers, dating back about five generations.

The group skews to an older demographic these days. There were about 600 registered stone carvers a decade ago, but Carolina Montesinos Mendoza, director of the Mexico State office that supports artisans, said there are probably only around 300 now. The carvers are dying off and their children generally don’t want to take up the trade,

With Xochiaca now lost in a labyrinth of city streets, they keep the old traditions alive. Many residents use stone mortars and pestles made by the stone carvers. Known as “molcajetes” in Spanish, these bowl-like grinders are the basic tool for making salsas.

“They are the backbone of the community,” said Rev. Alberto Sandoval, who has known them since 1990, when he served as a parish priest in Xochiaca.

Most of the carvers have individual workshops at home, which provide them with some income. They sell carvings for prices ranging from $500 to $2,000, but they often don’t sell much.

Unlike many craftspeople who want to see their works displayed in museums, the carvers here work free of charge to create and maintain carvings to decorate the local cemetery.

Among those are an imposing, 20-foot (6-meter) stone Christ figure as well as European-inspired sculptures of the 12 apostles.