“A microscopic amount of iron gives you red, while a tiny bit of copper makes it green.” Once upon a time archeologists went to great lengths to describe all the colors in an obsidian knife, for example, in an attempt to pinpoint where in the world that object had originally come from. Once our sights were fixed on locating different colors of obsidian, we were inevitably led to the one man who knows more about the subject than anyone else in the area: archeologist Rodrigo Esparza, whom we now refer to as “the Obsidian Detective.” Esparza explained to us that the colors in obsidian come from traces of different minerals embedded in it. That’s the place where the best rainbow obsidian comes from.” The obsidian detective “The sangre-de-indio obsidian is from a hill just outside Navajas,” he told us, “but we trade with people as far away as La Lobera, a little town about 65 kilometers north of here. As a result, Don Eleno and friends were soon creating elegant sculptures which have found their way to museums and even to homes overseas.Īfter marveling at the many colors of obsidian in his workshop, we asked Don Eleno where the raw material had come from. The artisans of Navajas had started out producing small hearts and butterflies, but as time went by, a benefactor began to bring them clay models made by accomplished Mexican sculptors, challenging them to render these works of art in obsidian. By now, Eleno and Manuel were bringing us other pieces, which, when turned in the sunshine, glimmered with a golden or silver sheen.
This, we were told, is known as rainbow obsidian. “This sphere is made of sangre-de-indio (Indian Blood) obsidian, said Eleno and these pieces, well, you have to take them into the sun to appreciate their colors.” To our amazement, a tear-shaped piece which seemed black in the shade suddenly came to life in the sunlight, revealing bright bands of color deep beneath the surface. In fact, all the other pieces on the table were just as attractive: some representing animals, some just simple forms, some very chic, and all of them beautifully polished. “¡Ay qué bonito!” exclaimed Susy, picking up a sleek, ultra-modern black sculpture of a cat. Fortunately, they switched off the noisy machines as Eleno led us to a table covered with objects representing the most recent output of the workshop. “This is my partner Manuel,” said Eleno over the din, taking us to a big man in bib overalls who was pushing a huge chunk of obsidian into a howling buzz saw - with his bare hands. The air was filled with dust and the roar of spinning grindstones. He led my wife Susy and me into a cinderblock yard partially covered by a tin roof. I confess that I, too, had very little interest in obsidian until the day I walked into Don Eleno’s obsidian workshop in the sleepy village of Navajas, located 30 kilometers southwest of Guadalajara.ĭon Eleno was a little man wearing a sombrero and a warm smile that radiated serenity. Although most obsidian is black, a variety of colors can be found in the vast deposits of Jalisco © John Pint, 2009 The many colors of obsidian As a result, the Tequila-Colli axis became one of the world’s greatest ancient mining zones for this natural glass, providing the pre-Columbian inhabitants of what is now western Mexico with a priceless “gift of the gods,” which dramatically shaped their destiny.Ĭuriously, most of the people living in the Guadalajara area today have never seen an obsidian mine and few would recognize a piece of obsidian lying at their feet even though the ground is strewn with it for at least 100 kilometers west of the city. Less than 90,000 years ago more lava came forth from the Colli area, where today we find the Primavera Forest.
West Mexico’s obsidian probably began as lava oozing out of cracks in the side of Tequila Volcano several million years ago, well after the volcano’s more dramatic eruptions into the air. Obsidian forms when lava cools quickly or is degassed in other ways. The third-largest deposits of obsidian in the world are found west of the city of Guadalajara and are superseded only by the deposits of Africa’s Rift Valley and the Oregon Plateau.
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