Lacquer arts, like all other forms of Mexico’s creative economy, has its own major center in the traditional town of Olinalá. It’s in this hard to access worldwide capital of lacquer, where Adolfo Escudero and his family rescue designs that have been lost over time. Carving and natural lacquering wood boxes continues a tradition that the indigenous created long before the Spanish arrived in Mexico. Adolfo Escudero and other box carvers in his southwestern part of the country use the same wood as generations before them: durable olinaloe and piñon varieties. The wood is also cut and prized as fragrance for traditional ceremonies. After selecting choice pieces from local wood purveyors, the artists find a special stone found in the hills surrounding Olinalá. They grind this down to a fine dust and mix it with chia oil to make a paste-like base coat for the entire wood surface. After weeks of air drying, they use a deertail brush to meticulously paint natural pigment onto the detailed relief. The result is a lustrous lacquer coating on each one-of-a-kind box. Beloved locally, recognized nationally, the Escudero family are recipients of the prestigious Fomento Cultural Banamex award, and with their fine boxes, they were awardees of the 2019 Banamex jury. Like many artist communities around the world, this one has challenges sourcing materials, creating pieces, and marketing their works inside a conflict zone. Narco -terrorism has shut down much of the tourism and studio visits, and artists’ income has fallen precipitously.