Barro bruñido
A thousand-year-old Tonalteca ceramic tradition producing unglazed, stone-polished pottery in several distinct finishing styles — bruñido (burnished), petatillo (fine cross-hatching resembling a woven straw mat), bandera (red-white-green), and canelo (cinnamon-toned) — historically exported to Spain and Italy in the colonial period and jealously guarded within multi-generation family workshops that, even today, rarely accept outside apprentices.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not currently inscribed on a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list; Mexico is a State Party to the UNESCO 2003 Convention (ratified 14 December 2005) and could nominate this technique in the future.
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