When I moved back to Mexico City in my thirties, I was still trying to find my real path. I’d trained as a ceramist, but something in me needed a different kind of fire.
A friend invited me to Taxco, the legendary silver town. We spent hours wandering through jewelry shops, but I left feeling disappointed. Everything looked mass-produced. Where were the artists?
So I came home and started stringing beads. I soon realized I didn’t want to just assemble, I wanted to make things in silver.
That’s when life whispered: look closer. Just a block from my apartment, hidden behind an industrial facade I’d passed a thousand times, was CECATI 25—one of the few jewelry schools in the entire city.
The CECATI system was founded in the 60s to offer technical education to those without access to university. And thanks to ongoing public investment in social programs, it’s still here changing lives. It changed mine.
I signed up for a six-month course, learned the basics… and here I am, 16 years later. Still at the bench, in love with fire and forge.