Candlemakers in Oaxaca keep the flame of tradition – and creativity – alive

Detailed summary

Generations of families are finding their own ways to make candlemaking relevant in a globalized world.

Generations of families are finding their own ways to make candlemaking relevant in a globalized world.

When Viviana Alávez Hipólito learned the craft of candlemaking from her grandmother some 66 years ago, it was over the open flames of a wood-burning fire, working above a dirt floor.

Decades later, Ms. Alávez’s workshop, known as Casa Viviana, looks much the same. Her brick-walled, open-air space brims with silver buckets of naturally dyed wax. A stout, leafless huisache tree sits in the center of the courtyard, covered with thin beeswax sheets that locals call tortillas, bleaching white under the pounding afternoon sun.

Although the workshop seems frozen in time, much has changed for Ms. Alávez and her craft. Many credit her with revamping the traditional art of candlemaking in this Indigenous Zapotec community, putting delicate candles adorned with wax flowers, shells, and fruit on the global map.

Until the 1990s, candles here were produced primarily for Catholic churches, which would give makers food instead of cash for their labor. But candles play an important cultural role in this valley, central to marriage proposals and family celebrations. Typically, when a groom asks a family for their daughter’s hand in marriage, he and his parents bring an ornate, handmade candle known as a vela de concha, or shell candle. Per tradition, the candle is meant to unite the families, and once it has completely burned, the couple are ready to wed. The larger and more intricate the candle, the more admirable the groom’s love for his bride.

Although her workshop seems frozen in time, much has changed for Viviana Alávez Hipólito and her craft. Many credit her with revamping the traditional art of candlemaking in this Indigenous Zapotec community, putting delicate candles adorned with wax flowers, shells, and fruit on the global map.

Ms. Alávez sits on a small wooden stool on a recent afternoon and rhythmically moves through the process of making the thin sheets of natural-yellow…

“It…

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