This mother-daughter team approaches traditional Mexican beadwork like prayer: Made in Arizona

Adriana Quintero and Luz Violeta are a mother-daughter team and the force behind Maxica Colectivo, a family-run group that creates contemporary jewelry using traditional beadwork and teaches others how to do it.

They’re members of the Indigenous Mexican Wixarika culture. They see the beadwork — and the way you methodically make it — as almost a form of prayer.

The collective teaches workshops and sells its wares to help support the community. The Show spoke with them more about it.

Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

Full conversation

ADRIANA QUINTERO: Mexico, you know, is very colorful, and art is everywhere. For me, art is inspiration. I want to start with: Art will heal the world.

LAUREN GILGER: Tell me about growing up and making jewelry like this. Did you learn how to make it as a kid?

QUINTERO: I was in my teenager age because same as here as United States, the reservations are in certain places. Then I grew up when I was little away of the reservation.

GILGER: Yeah. 

QUINTERO: When I was a teenager, I used to start looking for my traditions.

GILGER: So you didn't grow up on the reservation. So as a teenager you tried to find some of that culture, and this was part of that it sounds like?

QUINTERO: Yes. Yes, it is like that. And I found it.

GILGER: Yeah. 

QUINTERO: And I found my brothers, my sisters and all that beautiful world that is all about origin.

GILGER: Yeah. So you're a mother-daughter pair here, and you work together in this collective, making this jewelry.

Luz, tell me about your experience and learning about this and learning about your culture in that way.

LUZ VIOLETA: So really, I'm so fortunate to have grown up with these practices. It's something that has just been a part of my upbringing, and that has given me a sense of purpose and a mission in life. And so, I'm really, really grateful that my mom was already on that path, on that journey to reconnecting and rediscovering where we really come from.

So that by the time I was born, I was born with a really deep sense of identity and of culture and tradition. And, it's taken me really far. I really think it's kept me grounded and kept my head on my shoulders through a lot of difficult moments. And it's also helped me to grow as a person to establish myself as an artist here in Arizona.

You know, I also was born in Mexico, and we moved here together when I was about 9 years old. So it's something that has stuck with us, even through all of these ups and downs and across borders. And it's kept us connected not just to our traditions, but to our family back home and to ourselves.

Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

GILGER: OK, so tell me about the beading, right. This is what's called sacred geometries that you're kind of replicating in the beading. What does that mean? There are stars, hummingbirds, eclipses — designs we all know —  but they mean something a little different to you. 

QUINTERO: Yeah. It's a language of light. Because, native art, in the beginning, was a way to communicate with a spiritual world. Then, our ancestors, they wanted to communicate with a spirit. You know, we need the rain. Then we start making different patterns about water. It's more about being thankful, no asking. It’s just to maintain harmony and let them know to the spiritual world that we are grateful to be here. And we are grateful for the water. Grateful for the fire. Grateful for the air.

GILGER: So it sounds like when you're beading, it's almost like a prayer.

QUINTERO: Yes.

VIOLETA: Yes. I like to say that beading is a way of telling a story with your hands. It's very much an expression of your inner world. And it's as much about the process as it is about the final product. So it's really a journey, and it's something that as you have your hands in the beadwork and you're making a piece, you are cycling through those emotions and expressing that inner world that comes out in the form of a pattern and colors. And in the different designs, the sacred geometries that come out from within us.

GILGER: Yeah, that's a beautiful way to put it. 

QUINTERO: Yeah. And that is a healing pattern because you have emotions that are not found in the way to go through. Then, when you put your hands in art — any kind, but we use beading — then you heal yourself.

GILGER: Yeah. So what does it feel like when you're doing this? Does it feel like a meditation? Does it feel like a catharsis?

VIOLETA: Yes, I would say so. Especially when you've been practicing the same pattern and trying to make something new or evolve that pattern. It's a connection with culture, with creativity itself. And really, it's very empowering to have that outlet. So yeah, it feels healing.

Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

QUINTERO: And it can be, you can feel frustration.

VIOLETA: Yes.

GILGER: Really? It's frustrating? OK.

QUINTERO: So, in the beginning when you try to put your mind in the present moment, that may be a little uncomfortable feeling. But that's part of the process.

GILGER: Yeah. 

VIOLETA: When I learned to make this, it was kind of in the downtimes that we had right before or after, in between a ceremony. And so, my grandmother, she would come up to me with a needle and beads and thread and she'd be like, “OK, this is how you do this pattern.” And the first one that we learned as little kids is making the bracelets.

So they're very thin bracelets. And she taught me a very simple pattern that looked like a snake. And snakes are kind of — they've been a favorite of mine lately, I would say. I really like to make these waterfall earrings.

GILGER: Oh, beautiful. Yeah. 

VIOLETA: But, it's taken time. I mean, you can ask our students. When they first sit down and feel that frustration, they can really appreciate. You come to really appreciate. When I first made that little bracelet, you know, I just really appreciated it.

Like my grandma, she made these great big medallions and flowers and just like 3D works that I'm still learning to make, even now. I'm 25, and I've got a long way to go.

GILGER: Lots to learn. 

VIOLETA: Yes, I’ve got a long way to go. I've only mastered, really, just a few patterns.

QUINTERO: It’s infinity universe of patterns.

GILGER: Right.

QUINTERO: Never end. Never.

GILGER: So you're teaching people in these workshops how to do this, which is a gift in itself, I'm sure. What does it feel like to get this into the world? Not just in selling these pieces and having other people appreciate them, but in teaching others how to do it?

QUINTERO: It's a call. It's a call that you have to attend, because if not, it's like a, you know, you have something to share, then you have to do it. It's not an option.

VIOLETA: The workshops are not just a teaching space. They're a gathering space. So it's an intergenerational practice, you know, with mother-daughter. And I'm a mother as well.

So I'm very eager and committed to continuing this to create spaces of cultural resilience, of sustainability, a place where we can appreciate beauty and human expression, especially being able to share it with people who might feel disconnected from their roots. This is an invitation, too. It's like a gateway to get back to that and to reconnect.