THE LAUNCH AND EVOLUTION OF A FOLK ARTIST:
Working in Corn Husk to Celebrate Daily Oaxacan Life
Florentino Ramón Navarro Pérez (Tino) is an artist who works with corn husks to create panoramas of daily life in Oaxaca. At age 22, employed full time in his father’s motorcycle repair workshop, he passed by the city of Oaxaca’s annual folk art event, Noche de los rabanos (Night of the Radishes) just before Christmas 2010. That was where he first saw this traditional art form (“totomoxtle”) on display. Of course, corn is the foundation of his culture and history. As a young child he had helped his paternal grandmother sow and harvest her plot of land, where she grew corn for the delectable tamales his mother sells each week in their town of San Sebastián Tutla, Oaxaca.


Catalyst for a New Career Path

Tino was awestruck by the art he saw that evening and decided right then to teach himself how to work with corn husk. With no tools, and with little time given his full-time job, Tino began to figure out how to choose the best corn stalk leaves, derived from the heritage varieties of corn his family grew, and to prepare them for shaping and gluing. He made his own tools out of household items, such as umbrella spokes, a manicure set, used penknives, and bamboo toothpicks.
Musicians, 2012

Tino’s paid job consumed most of his time the following year, but in November 2011 he set to work every night on an ambitious tableau of the Guelaguetza regional dance festival to submit the following year. To his shock he won third prize that year at the Noche de los rábanos. The following year he captured second place with a rodeo scene.
Detail of rodeo scene, 2013

Frustrated by the lack of time he could devote to his newfound passion, Tino produced little totomoxtle art in the next few years. But when he heard about FOFA’s July 2016 competition for artists ages 30 and younger, “Honoring Our Roots, Exploring Our Dreams,” he created a remarkable entry portraying 14 figures in the traditional dance, Jarabe del Valle and won honorable mention.
The Development of Tino’s Self-Image as an Artist
“Around that time I began to call myself an artist,” recalls Tino, “and I made every effort to arrange my life to do my art.” He cut back his hours at the repair shop and began selling his art at the gift shop of the Museo Estatal de Arte Popular Oaxaca (MEAPO, Oaxaca State Museum of Art) and elsewhere. He signed up for every workshop offered by FOFA, including a 12-week cultural history class, several marketing and innovation workshops, English lessons and, most recently, FOFA’s three-month marketing workshop in selling online. Following the online marketing workshop, Tino recently upgraded his Instagram site (piel_de_maiz), which he has made his primary site for selling.

The Impact of FOFA’s Community of Artists
Tino’s technique has become more refined through years of experimentation and practice, and also through the friendships he has developed. He credits Rebecca Rubí Martínez Sosa and other weavers from the pueblo of Teotitlán del Valle, whom he met at FOFA workshops, with teaching him plant-based dying techniques. For instance, the agave plant fibers used for hair on his figures are dyed with a nut tea. With the help of other FOFA artists, he is refining his corn husk weaving techniques to portray the baskets his market women figures carry, and the mats they stand upon. “I got to know artists my age from all over Oaxaca at FOFA events. Thanks to FOFA I now have a lot of friends! We keep in touch by WhatsApp since we can’t get together because of COVID.”
Meat Market Vendor, 2017

A Recent Culmination of his Success
Tino’s listing on FOFA’s website (www.fofa.us/folk-arts/corn-husk) resulted in a commission for an extraordinary nativity scene. An avid New York collector of crèches placed an order with Tino to expand her collection. Tino has invested scores of hours in creating these figures, and the result is a testimony to how far he has come as an artist. A sculptor, he manages to portray kindness, sympathy and reverence in the faces of his characters. Their clothes, shaped of corn husk on a backing of paper, flow in rippling folds. His sense of proportion is exact. The rustic quality of the material in no way detracts from the exquisite detail and precision Tino achieves.
Tino is one of the many remarkable artists with whom FOFA has the pleasure of working and whose maturation as an artist we celebrate. He recently told us, “I am very grateful to FOFA because it motivates me a lot to believe in my work and to believe that my work has a future. FOFA helps me believe that it is possible to live doing the work that I love.”
Please consider supporting FOFA's ongoing efforts to enable talented young Oaxacan folk artists to achieve their dreams and maintain sustainable livelihoods.

For a comprehensive look at FOFA's programs, visit our website at: www.fofa.us
Thank you!

www.fofa.us 718-859-1515 info@fofa.us
275 Central Park West, #1-C New York, New York 10024