This bark paper is boiled and soaked over night until soft enough for the fibers to pull apart. It is then pounded using a rectangular rock with finger grooves until the pulp is evenly spread out in the shape the paper-maker wants.
The sound of Enrique Santos pounding pulp into paper can be heard echoing off the hills around his town of San Pablito in the Sierra Norte in Puebla.
The color and grain of the paper depends on the bark used to make it. The typical coffee color comes from the Jonote tree (ficus family), white from the Xalama Limón, and the silvery beige color from the Mora (mulberry family), to name just a few varieties. Years of practice let the Otomí artisans make different sizes and thicknesses - from poster-board to crepe-paper weight.
The paper is dried in the sun on the same boards where it is pounded and shaped.
The practice of making Amate paper has been kept alive due to its important role in Otomí religious ceremonies. The cut-out figures represent different good and bad spirits and are used in offering ceremonies, for example for a good corn crop, as well as for curing sick people. The figure at the right is known as the Lord of the Mountain. Each family has to know how to make the paper in order to give it to the shaman so that he can cut out the figures for each ceremony.
Enrique Santos has gone on to make elaborate designs with these figures, usually around sun images. They are made in a thin, dark colored sheet of paper, which is then pounded into a white sheet of Amate paper while the white one is still wet. The artist does not draw the design on the paper, but cuts directly from their creative vision and memory. This art is known as "Amate Picado". A simple design with a pineapple spirit is shown here at the left.Papel AmateBark Paper