Viviana Alávez

Doña Viviana Alávez has been creating candles since she was eight years old. When necessity prompted her to promote her work beyond church gratuity, she resisted the town elders’ opposition to her entrepreneurial impulse and, despite the loss of wax moulds inherited from her grandmother, opened the gate to artistic, innovative candle-making. Today, four generations of female artisan candlemakers work, to international acclaim, at the family home in Teotitlán del Valle, proudly named CASA VIVIANA. Doña Viviana continues her dedicated practice, teaching and creating a proud profession for Zapotec women, whose access to this knowledge had been previously denied.