Retablo Artisan

Peru is the focus of this year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Alfredo Lopez Morelez sits at a table coaxing clay into small animals, people and flowers. They will become additions to his carved wooden crosses and retablos. People come and go, peering at the large retablo on his table, populated by the Holy Family and an entire village's worth of farmers, sheep and celestial beings. He encourages the children to feel the clay and to try forming it into a leaf or a body. The musicians and craftspeople are here to share their traditions and way of life, hand to hand and face to face.