The wise men gathered to tell stories. Folk art and diverse voices through oral history

Abstract

This paper is the result of a completed investigation, it deals with the use of oral history to investigate and make visible the work of Gumercindo España Olivares, better known as "Sshinda", extraordinary toymaker and oral narrator from Guanajuato, Mexico.

Understanding the importance of the past through oral history seems an arduous task, it is common for many historians to recover the memory of characters who have been classified as “anonymous”, it is not interesting, however, we know that in recent decades oral history has played a very valuable role in making the work of these types of characters visible.

With the intention of exposing the link between popular art and diverse voices through oral history, in this communication I note the qualitative methodological proposal to investigate and make visible the work of the Sshinda, through in-depth interviews, ethnographic description and recovery of oral testimonies to account for the processes, techniques, designs, mechanisms and the diversity of toys that this character managed to build in order to establish himself as one of the most important toymakers in Mexico and which achieved international recognition.