The document summarizes the process of making amate bark paper by hand among Otomi Indians in Puebla, Mexico. The bark from mulberry or fig trees is boiled, soaked, and pounded into pulp that is spread into sheets. Nahua Indians in southern Mexico then paint bright scenes of village life and wildlife onto the handmade bark paper using pigments. Much of the finished amate paper is sold in villages where artisans decorate the paper with imaginative paintings of everyday life, birds, animals, and flowers.

1. Amate Bark
Painting

2. • Bark paper, papal
amate, is produced by
hand in the state of
Puebla by Otomi
Indians using bark
from the mulberry or
fig trees. The
mulberry tree creates
off-white paper, while
the fig tree creates
much darker paper.

3. This bark paper is
boiled and soaked
overnight until soft
enough for the fibers to
pull apart.
It is then pounded
using a rectangular
rock with finger
grooves until the fibers
of the pulp fuse
together and are evenly
spread out in the shape
the paper-maker wants.

5. • The paper finds its
way to the Nahua
Indians of Southern
Mexico who have
excelled for several
generations at
painting bright village
and wildlife scenes on
the hand-made paper.

6. • Paper was sacred to
both the Mayans and
the Aztecs. It was the
medium on which
their history and
discoveries were
chronicled.

7. Much of the amate
paper goes to villages
in the state of
Guerrero where
artisans who once
decorated pottery
now paint imaginative
scenes of everyday
life, fanciful birds,
animals and flowers
on this special paper.