For 40 years, the Fercho Mascaras workshop gives life to the country’s carnivals

San Salvador Atenco, Méx., Wax made with a fabric base and horsetail and diverse finishes, the masks of the Fercho workshop, made by Fernando González López, are used in the carnivals of San Salvador Atenco and other municipalities Mexicans, as well as Mexico City and other entities in the country.

The elaboration of these handicrafts is a family tradition of 40 years ago in Achexcomac de Atenco, initiated by the late Justino González Colín, continued by four children and now by a third generation.

More than 600 masks have left the workshop of Fernando González to be used in the country’s carnival season; They have even taken France, Peru, Russia, Cuba and the United States.

Its creation begins with the make of a cloth or cement and plaster mold, which is covered with a wax fusion to give flexibility. Then be beards made with horsetail, simulating old Barbones, which mean a mockery to the European profile.

The mask is adorned and painted with allegorical rhinestones, or embroidered with gold and silver canutillo. The entire elaboration process takes one day.

“For us it is a pleasure and honor to continue with this legacy of my dad. It is an art that we keep, and we adapt to orders.

There is already a third generation that continues with the elaboration of masks: my son Kevin Ariel González learned the tradehe said.

In the workshop, costumes are also made for the carnival, from the simplest and most traditional multicolored that are used in the carnivals of San Salvador Atenco to Casimir suits embroidered in Gold and Silver Canutillo, characteristic of the festivities in Chimalhuacán.

Style masks have also left the workshop slipperfor Morelos and Morelia; of calaverasthat are sent to New York for Halloween celebrations; of Samurai, for Puebla, and of Catrinas, among others.

There are several prices masks; The simplest range from 2,200 to 6 thousand pesos, those of Canutillo.

Since mid -February, carnivals begin in San Salvador Atenco, Chimalhuacán and other municipalities in the region, as well as in other parts of the country. The masks and costumes give life to the festivities.