Escalerillas

Escalerillas makes its living from stone. It sits at the far western edge of the San Luis Potosí metro area, about 5 km past the built-up city on the road to Guadalajara and roughly 1,950 metres up, and its trade is cantería: carving stone for facades, fountains and ornaments, much of it for the state capital.

The ejido is a string of ranchos along federal Highway 80 between kilometres 7 and 15: Insurgentes, Mesa de Conejos, Pilitas, Escalerillas, Casa Blanca, La Maroma and Pozuelos. For decades the workshops have set their pieces out by the roadside, so drivers pull over to buy fountains, planters and figures, and over time private clients began ordering balconies and facade work.

Stonecutters from the ejido have worked on major jobs in the city: the Holy Family on the facade of the Lomas church, the old telegraph building, and paving stones for streets in the historic centre during its restoration. Families split the work, some carving ornaments and others making cornices and facade elements. Known workshops include Ramón Rivera Bravo's, mainly for carved pieces, and those of Felipe Moreno Galván and Juan José Moreno Bravo, who have worked on buildings in San Luis, Saltillo, Monterrey and Piedras Negras.

Settlement here goes back to land grants between 1603 and 1607, and the ejido itself dates from 5 July 1924, when its land was formally granted. Each year in early July the community marks the anniversary with the crowning of a queen, music and dances by local groups.