Seri/Comca’ac Women’s Artisans Cooperative

Lola Torres, basket weaver

The Seri/Comca’ac Women’s Artisans Cooperative from Desemboque and Punta Chueca, on the Sea of Cortez in Sonora, Mexico, are visiting in southern California for a week.

My good friend Abe Sanchez is hosting their visit, and they’re staying with me for two days while they exhibit their work at the Pala Reservation for Cupa Days. Abe and I visited them in Desemboque two years ago for their summer festival, and participated in their harvesting the delicious fruits of the cardón cactus, or Pachycereum pringlei. The cardón is the largest cactus in the world, and the fruits are harvested in July when it’s really really really hot in the desert. Former CSUSM student Clarissa McCallum created the poster for them below.

Raquel Hoeffer gathering cardon cactus fruits

cardón fruit

Teresa Hoeffer standing in front of a cardon cactus

angelita_molina

Angelita Torres, Comca’ac elder, from Desemboque, applying her face paint.

Seri Women Basket Dance

Many Comca’ac women are master basketweavers. Last year Mike Evans at the Tree of Life Native Plant Nursery in San Juan Capistrano hosted them, and here they’re doing a basket dance around one of their large and beautiful baskets.

Seri Women Artisans