Nuevo Laredo's Glass Blower

Save time for a trip deeper into Nuevo Laredo to El Cid, the city's only glass factory, located at 3861 Avenida Reforma. You'll need to drive or catch a taxi to this store, but the shopping here makes the effort worthwhile. Romualdo Canales has owned El Cid for more than 20 years, and he still comes in seven days a week to produce the colorful glassware.

Romualdo carries on a long-time Mexican craft of glassblowing, a tradition that he sees gradually eroding. "The teachers here don't teach the traditional Mexican cultures, and that's sad," he says. He wishes Mexican schoolchildren visited his factory on field trips to learn more about the ancient art.

"It has to come from within you to do something like this," Romualdo says. "We are always trying to come up with new ideas. We want to be more creative, even if it means we lose time and money."

Romualdo has used that creativity to expand his product line beyond the traditional glasses and bowls. "We make anything and everything," points out Romualdo, displaying a delicate Christmas ornament. Behind the showroom, six to seven men work the 1400-degree ovens to produce bowls and glasses, most edged with color.

Minerals such as copper and cobalt produce many of the colors: aquamarine, red, and, the most popular tint, bullet blue. Other colors reflect recycling at its best. Melted beer bottles create amber-tinted rims; whisky bottles yield green-rimmed glasses.

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