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Cabo San Lucas Blown Glass Factories
by David Mandich for the Cabo Free Press
Glass has been made in Cabo San Lucas for almost 25 years. Glass making has been in Mexico since the conquest, with the process known to mankind for over 4,000 years. 2,500 years ago in Mesopotamia, blowing glass bubbles with a tube was invented. The Romans, Venetians, and Muslim peoples all practiced the craft with the Spanish bringing it to the New World in 1535. Among the first Jamestown colonialists were six glass blowers thus establishing the tradition in North America culminating with Tiffany glass as the American benchmark over 100 years ago.
The Spanish created new industries in Mexico that would employ the indigenous people and supply the Spanish empire with saleable merchandise. For example - Chinese blue and white ceramics were ordered copied and the Talavera ceramic industry was created in Puebla. Weaving looms were imported from Spain and commercial textile manufacturing was born using locally grown cotton and native vegetable dyes. Spanish glass artisans introduced glass making to Mexico.
Cabo has two glass factories - Vitrofusion y Arte in centro Cabo (aka The Glass Factory) (624) 143-0120 - and the other located mid-corridor in the Tule area founded by Architect Alfredo Enriques shortly afterwards. Artisans at both factories turn out bodegas full of margarita glasses, pitchers, plates, bowls, tequila shot glasses, wine glasses, Christmas ornaments, and other art and utilitarian pieces daily.
Custom work can be made to order at the glass factories - from colored glass skylights to beautiful dinner sets. When a patient of a dental clinic in Cabo accidentally broke a white glass porcelain cuspidor on a dental chair, a new one was quickly made at the Glass Factory. Not surprisingly - the new one looked like a margarita glass!
It was made of clear glass with tiny bubbles and had a blue rim. "Patients sometimes do a double-take when they first see it. I just ask them if they want the rim salted or not," laughed the Dentista.
Traditional margarita glasses and pitchers are the factories mainstays given the high demand by cantinas, bars, clubs, restaurants, hotels and individuals. Gift sets are packaged and carried off around the world by tourists. Margarita glassware may be next in Mexico's GNP to Tequila.
People bring in empty glass bottles and exchange them for glassware at the Glass Factory. The artisans recycle the glass into new glass objects - an ecological alternative to creating new glass by heating sand, soda, and lime. Cabo's glass factories have viewing areas where one can safely watch glass work being created by the artisans in front of the roaring hot furnaces. The glass workshops are open for viewing from 8-2 pm with the sales showrooms open until 5 pm.
Cabo Author David Mandich writes for Dr. Nelson's Mexico Dentist Guide where you can find affordable dentistry in Mexico by Board Certified Dentists.
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