05.06.23 Blue Corn

“Blue Corn”
Crucita Gonzales Calabaza
1921-1999

By Rebekah Powers | April 2023

The name Blue Corn was given to Crucita Gonzales Calabaza in a San Ildefonso naming ceremony by one of Maria Martinez’s sisters and the name would become one that echoes down through history. Under the tutelage of her grandmother, Blue Corn made her first clay pot at the age of 3 and her grandmother told her, “Your hands are made for pottery.”

In spite of the fact that her grandmother wanted her to forgo formal schooling and just focus on pottery, the child left home to attend the Santa Fe Indian School, about 25 miles south of her Pueblo home. Both of her parents died while she was away, so she spent summers with her grandmother absorbing a generational legacy that she would later amplify and pass on.

After graduation, she met and married, had her first son and launched an extensive inquiry into the “old ways” of making pottery that had distinguished San Ildefonso for generations. While Maria Martinez and her husband Julian worked to revive blackware, Blue Corn and her husband Santiago experimented with all aspects of polychrome pottery and burnishing.

Using a variety of clays, colors, forms and techniques, Blue Corn produced a significant number of fine redware, blackware and polychrome pieces and by 1960, she was considered the matriarch responsible for the revival of polychrome pottery for her Pueblo. Known for a high polish which she said she achieved by polishing very slowly, she also used subtle clay colors to paint her favorite designs including feathers, rain clouds and the ubiquitous Avanyu (Tewa Water Serpent).

After Santiago’s death, their son Joseph took his place, helping Blue Corn as her extraordinary work gained prominence. She traveled across America, participating in exhibitions, demonstrations and open markets like the Santa Fe Indian Market and New Mexico’s State Fair, winning major awards. In 1981, she was awarded the Governor’s Award, the highest honor given in the state of New Mexico. At the end of her life, in 1999, she was at the pinnacle of her career and she had left an important legacy inherited by the 10 children she had raised, 18 grandchildren and the 10 great grandchildren she had taught some of whom have become award winning potters in their own right.

We have just acquired a rare selection of Blue Corn pottery as we continue to offer the best of the Southwest, where “History meets Art at Chimayo Trading”. Our gallery is a historic site of its own and the perfect place to experience our exquisitely curated collection.

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Contact us directly to discuss and evaluate your collection. If you’re an artist, contact us about the possibility of selling your art on consignment or direct wholesale purchase.

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