Arnulfo Mendoza weaving a rug. | Photo ©Linda Brooks

Twenty years ago, a young Canadian backpacker named Mary Jane Gagnier stumbled upon a tiny village in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, fell in love with a local weaver — and never left.

To this day Mary Jane and Arnulfo Mendoza live in Teotitlan del Valle. That’s pretty typical in this village nestled in the dry foothills of the Sierra Juarez, where people stay put — unlike many in Mexico, who are forced by poverty to emigrate.

To introduce a visitor to the allure of life in the village, she visited the local church. “Can you smell them? Can you smell the sweetness of the beeswax here?” she asks.

Hundreds of handmade beeswax candles light the church. Massive bouquets of fresh flowers at every altar and gigantic oil paintings hung in colossal gold frames. Life here is full of color, ritual and mystery.

“They live in a world where spirits come and go and they’re invited into your home and they eat your food,” she said. “And I thought, this is something I want to understand.”

The gorgeous decorations and the marvelous food — one village restaurant got a rave review in the New York Times — comes not from what you might expect. Certainly not from the money immigrants send home. In Teotitlan people don’t emigrate. Even the kids who go away to college come back to live in the village.

Instead, most of it comes from a thriving cottage industry: weaving rugs.

“There are now about 8,000 or 9,000 weavers. In a town of 10,000 people,” said Arnolfo Mendoza, who has become one of Teotitlan del Valle’s most famous weavers.

Mary Jane didn’t just fall in love with Teotitlan — she also fell for Arnulfo. They got married, had a son and made a life in Teotitlan del Valle.

View Photo Gallery:

For hundreds of years Teotitlan has been known for the beauty of its woven textiles but, even recently, villagers here lived without electricity or paved roads. That changed in the mid 1980s. The Southwestern/Santa Fe style of art — from clothes to painting to architecture and design — became the rage in the United States. And weavers in Teotitlan could deliver high quality, handmade rugs to meet the demand.

They also turned out some pretty cheesy rugs — copies of Picasso paintings were especially popular. But weavers in Teotitlan were also interested in making rugs inspired by traditional designs.

The timing was right. By the 1980s, Oaxaca was becoming a tourist destination — and that gave Mary Jane Mendoza an idea: They opened one of the first galleries in nearby Oaxaca City. Since Mary Jane was a part of village life here, she said she was passionate about getting a fair price for the artists.

“When we started buying from the folk artists in the valley of Oaxaca they would give me a beautiful ceramic piece and I would say, well Adelina sign your piece. As soon as that piece stopped being anonymous, then yes, we could validate a certain price.”

But Mary Jane Mendoza didn’t just sell folk art to tourists. She became something of an ambassador for Teotitlan, writing books about life in the village and museum catalogues, especially about her husband’s extraordinary weavings.

“My English, it’s very bad, I’m sorry about that,” Arnulfo said. “Mary Jane is the perfect person, who is helping of what is exactly in the language of my artwork.”

Arnulfo Mendoza dyes his own silk and wool yarn. He is especially fond of the cochineal, the tiny insect that lives on cactus that, when crushed, releases rich red colors ranging from burgundy to salmon, plum and purple. Sometimes he also uses silver and gold thread — Mendoza’s weavings pulse and shimmer. They sell for many thousands of dollars.

The money from the rugs and the folk art is spent on cars and houses, of course, but also on lavish fiestas, food, and celebrations with all those over the top decorations. Mary Jane Mendoza has a name for Teotitlan’s style — she calls it “Teotitlan Baroque.”

“I think of it as that kind of opulence that comes with the combination of tradition and affluence, said Mary Jane.” And you want to preserve the customs and then you have the economy to support that.”

Remember, Teotitlan sits in one of Mexico’s poorest states — per capita income in Oaxaca is only a little over $3,000 a year.

“The more we support the folk art in the area we’re supporting people staying in their communities and embracing traditions and preserving them,” Mary Jane said. And the in the area, there is more than weaving. She pointed to San Martin Tilcajete, a very successful woodcarving village, as another example of a community that has found a way to thrive.

“The more successful the community is with their craft the less migration there is,” she said

Mary Jane Mendoza seems to have lived a backpacker’s fantasy — stumbling upon a beautiful village and falling for one of its most dashing and talented native sons. But the love story does not have an entirely happy ending.

While Mary Jane and Arnulfo figured out how to market Teotitlan’s folk art to the world, they could not figure out how to stay happily married.

“I think everything has a full circle and everything comes to its natural conclusion,” she said of her marriage.

And so Mary Jane and Arnulfo split up. But neither of them plans to leave Teotitlan. This village of artists and weavers has a life too good for them to leave.

And maybe that’s the point of this story — that at least in some places, art does sustain life.