The period of 1900-1950 marked the Mexican Renaissance and brought us names like Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. It also attracted American born architect, William Spratling, to the tiny silver mining town of Taxco in 1931. He was surprised to find that, despite the mining, there was no silversmithing, and he opened his silversmith shop in Taxco despite not speaking a word of Spanish.

Joan and I spent the past three weeks sleeping in the room that used to be the office where he oversaw as many as 500 silversmiths. The volume of workers accounts for its sprawling across three separate buildings connected by aerial walkways offering magnificent views of the city from every angle, but it’s not just the views I came here for.

This was my second visit, and Joan was shocked to hear that my previous visit lasted more than two months. A bit to her frustration, I’d spent the past year moving her constantly around the world, never spending more than a week in one place. She asked how it was that I came to spend such an extended period in this particular place.

For me it is the community and the interaction. Casa Spratling is filled with artists and eccentrics alike, each one with a novel’s worth of stories, and those stories are so easily accessible through the communication network facilitated by the large open courtyard in the middle of the place.

Regularly someone pokes a head into the courtyard and yells out the name of the person they wish to speak to; moments later that person responds. Even if you’re not the one being summoned, you get to keep up on current events while you listen to their conversation. It reminds me of the old party lines during the early days of telephony in the United States.

The artistas

Violante is the matriarch of the place, and her boundless energy keeps it running smoothly. In addition to providing long term rentals and running the AirBnB, she manages the kitchen of the #1 rated restaurant in Taxco: S caffecito. It’s hard to eat anywhere else when exiting the building requires walking past her kitchen and the delicious aromas of one of the four lasagnas on her menu. When she’s not managing, she’s creating, whether it’s a new dish for the restaurant or a piece of jewelry.

Another resident artist and jeweler is Annabel, our next door neighbor. She’s been living in Taxco for 40 years since attending silversmithing school here. She spends the year producing her unique style of nature inspired jewelry which she brings home annually to sell at trade shows in England. Last week, she was kind enough to give us a tour of her studio, and we couldn’t help but walk away with several pieces we purchased.

Every day we hear the constant tapping of hammers while the artists of Casa Spratling continue the tradition of silversmithing that began here almost almost 100 years ago. During our stay, we were fortunate enough to have Violante take us on a tour of the historic Rancho Spratling, a former silversmith workshop with a vibrant past, whose only residents today are four scarlet macaws and a crocodile.