Craft workers. A new division of labor in Santa Clara del Cobre

Abstract

This article refers to the results obtained through the observation that was carried out –in the year 2017– concerning the changes that the artisanal work in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacan., underwent throughout the previous twenty years. Throughout this period, in which the craft workshops and the families that operated them initially occupied part of the courtyards of houses, was transformed to the present reality whereby these same people have become part of large
companies. Currently, these workshops manufacture copper pieces on a large scale in order to serve the international market, above all, that of the usa. The said transformation has thus transcended the actual definition of the worker himself, who was previously a copper craftsman, but who is now given the status of a skilled worker within a workforce renumerated through the salaried factory system. Through the use of a variety of machinery, including cutters, lathes, planing machines and cutting torches, they manufacture hundreds of pieces per month; as a result, the said products have also been transformed from what were once traditional handcrafts, which —through their manual production— possessed the characteristic of being unique and unrepeatable. Nowadays, some of these workshops employ over 50 workers, including supervisors, turners and welders, and have actually increased copper production throughout the region, though this has meant the gradual disappearance of independent craftsmen, individual creativity and the disappearance of the ‘unique’ piece.