About Viva Oaxaca Folk Art

Viva Oaxaca Folk Art is based in Boston, MA, owned by Phil Saviano -- importer, traveler, photographer, web designer. It is a sole proprietorship registered in the City of Boston, MA. USA. Our credit card charges are certified and processed by Authorize.net. Our Merchant Account is with Bank of America.

If you have questions about the merchandise, an existing order, are having trouble placing a new order, or have comments about this website, let Phil Saviano know. Here are three ways to reach us:

Contact by E-mail:  Follow this link.

Contact by Phone:
Call (617) 983-5075. You may call seven days a week, from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Eastern time. Ask for Phil.

Contact by postal mail. The street mailing address is:

Viva Oaxaca Folk Art
Phil Saviano
109 Ardale Street
Boston, MA 02131

Visit Us on Facebook. Follow this link.

12 Years in Business, and Still Going Strong

May 2001: Phil Saviano with dragon woodcarving by Arsenio Morales from village of Arrazola.

Phil started the Viva Oaxaca online venture quite by chance, following a trip to Oaxaca in March 1999. By then, he already knew he loved it there, having been hooked on the place after experiencing the Christmas week Radish Festival in 1986.  On several trips in the mid-1990s, he had explored other parts of Mexico, including Mexico City, Chiapas and the Yucatan. He bought a tight-weave, all-cotton hammock in Merida and slung it on several undeveloped beaches along the Caribbean and Pacific coasts.

He slept in it on several of the turquoise water and sugar-sand beaches south of Cancun.  He remembers waking at sunrise at Playa del Carmen, with the sky burning with pinks and orange, while a mother pig and her piglets splashed in the foamy surf.  This was when Playa consisted of not much more than a cluster of oval-shaped thatched roof houses, a stone Mayan ruin protruding from the sand, and the boat dock for Cozumel. The arrival of the fancy hotels and sleek, white cruise ships was still a decade away.

He slung his hammock on Oaxaca state’s Pacific coast, too.  At Zipolite, where the 1960’s beach bum - hippie scene lasted far into the 1990s, the surf was too rough for safe swimming.  But at nighttime, the moon and stars were bright enough to cast shadows on the sand. The rhythmic whoosh and crashing of the waves was a calming lullaby powered by the heavens.  For safer swimming and a more peaceful setting, he eventually worked his way up the coast to Mazunte, which quickly became his favorite of all Mexico beaches.

April 2006: Phil Saviano with Tribus Mixes artist Neftali Martinez, at the artists' compound in Viguera.

During these years of wandering in Mexico, Phil took photos and kept journals.  They evolved into travel stories about the Yucatan’s underground cenotes, about Day of the Dead festivities in Oaxaca, and about the chocolate culinary tradition of Oaxaca.  In the late 1990s, he got them published in several newspaper travel sections, including The Portland Oregonian, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and The New York Post.  You can find these stories posted now on the Viva Oaxaca website.

All this led up to Phil’s fateful, March 1999 visit to Oaxaca. What made this trip different was that Phil was out-of-work and looking for ways to generate some cash. He had recently discovered eBay, and the possibilities of selling things on the Internet.  Even though he could barely afford the trip, Phil managed to get to Mexico quite cheaply.  He worked a deal with New York’s World Courier company, and brought a package down to Mexico City in exchange for cheap airfare. From there, it was a seven-hour bus ride south, past Puebla and through the mountains to Oaxaca. Surrounded by Oaxaca’s amazing array of colorful woodcarvings and glittering tin, he saw a business opportunity. He figured he could sell some carvings on eBay and at least help pay for his trip. He took home $130 worth of wood figures, and set out to test the market.  Very quickly he saw promise.  Though these first carvings he posted were inexpensive, and of moderate artistic quality, every piece sold at a worthwhile profit.

Two months later, he was back on another courier flight to Mexico City.  Over the next two years, he made six trips down, each time venturing deeper into the woodcarvers villages of San Martin Tilcajete, Arrazola and La Union Tejalapan.  Traveling alone, on a tight budget and speaking barely more than a few phrases in Spanish, Phil’s trips were a big challenge but an exciting adventure.  What he lacked in conversational ability, he made up for in tenacity.  He returned again and again until the artists knew he was serious about establishing a relationship with them, and Phil knew which of the artists’ talents were worth his trouble and effort.

The New York City terrorist attacks of 2001 put an end to the carefree world of travel by freelance courier.  Paying full-fare from that point on, Phil had to curtail his buying trips to just two a year. During this period, he studied the art of website design, eventually finding steady work running sites for non-profit organizations.  In 2003 he launched his own website and moved his business from eBay to VivaOaxacaFolkArt.com.

September 2008: Phil Saviano and ceramic artist Isabelle Castillo in town of Izucar de Matamoros.

Although Oaxacan woodcarvings and tin remain his biggest sellers, Phil has expanded his product offerings to Day of the Dead art, in wood, tin and ceramics, coconut shell masks from Guerrero State, embroidered handbags from Chiapas, and ceramic candlesticks and candelabra by the renowned Castillo family potters from Puebla State. Except for the handbags and coco shell art, he buys all his products directly from the artists who make them, cutting out the middlemen so that more of the cash goes directly to the talented artists who do the work.

A recent addition to the online store is a page of Mayordomo and La Soledad chocolate from Oaxaca. Blended with pulverized almonds, cinnamon, vanilla and sugar, this chocolate is unlike drinking chocolate from anyplace else in the world.  The memory of Oaxaca’s hot chocolate drink is something that lingers with tourists long after they have returned home from their trip. It is very hard to find it in the States, but you can get some here at Viva Oaxaca Folk Art.

More than 10 years into it, Phil is now selling to customers all over the United States, to the UK and Australia too. One thing that hasn't changed . . . he still loves his trips to Mexico.