Hector Aguilar and Taller Borda

Handmade Mexican jewellery is considered some of the finest in the world, a reputation built on more than a century of dedication to artistry and craftsmanship. Among the figures who shaped this legacy is Hector Aguilar, one of a small group of influential jewellery designers that emerged during that important period in Mexican design history – the Silver Renaissance.

To understand the influence of Hector Aguilar and that of his famous workshop Taller Borda, it is essential to trace the cultural and historical forces that gave rise to this remarkable revival in silver jewellery design in Taxco, a small town in the highlands of Mexico.

The Mexican Cultural Revival

The Mexican Silver Renaissance took root in the early 20th century, when the nation’s established silver-mining tradition converged with a broader cultural awakening. Before the renaissance Mexican silver jewellery designs were conservative and filigree work featured heavily, with designs inspired by religion and with European baroque influences. The Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) and its aftermath created a national push for Mexican cultural identity (indigenismo) and by the 1920s and 30s, a spirit of cultural nationalism was flourishing, as artists and intellectuals such as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo redefined Mexico’s identity by reclaiming Indigenous heritage and celebrating folk traditions.

Infused with the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement and modernism, this climate of revival laid the foundation for a new wave of creativity. It was within this fertile atmosphere that the mountain town of Taxco, once famed for its silver mines but long in decline, became the stage for a remarkable transformation—one that would be sparked by an American architect, artist, and visionary named William Spratling. Drawn to Mexico’s vibrant artistic scene in the 1920s, Spratling immersed himself in the circles of writers, painters, and intellectuals who were redefining the nation’s cultural identity. By 1929, he had settled in Taxco, where he began producing silver jewellery that merged traditional Mexican symbolism with modern aesthetics, igniting a renaissance that would restore the town as the epicentre of bold and creative silverwork.

A New Age in Mexican Jewellery Design

William Spratling recognized both the untapped potential of Taxco’s silversmithing tradition and the hunger for a new, authentically Mexican artistic expression. With his training in architecture and design and his keen eye for form, he began producing silverwork that revived motifs rooted in pre-Columbian art, Indigenous symbolism, and folk traditions. The result was an entirely fresh style of jewellery that fused cultural heritage with contemporary aesthetics. Spratling was an avid collector of native artifacts and indigenous art and his appreciation of these forms of creative expression infused his work and that of the designs of the guild of apprentices in his workshop.

The Inspiration of the Taller de las Delicias

In 1931, Spratling founded his workshop, Taller de las Delicias, which soon became the beating heart of silver jewellery production in Taxco. His designs—bold, modern but deeply influenced by Mexican culture and history—quickly attracted international attention. More importantly, his workshop served as a training ground for a new generation of silversmiths and jewellery designers, many of whom, like Hector Aguilar, would go on to become celebrated designers in their own right.

When William Spratling established the Taller de las Delicias he not only founded a workshop but also ignited the movement that would come to be known as the Mexican Silver Renaissance.

More than a studio, the Taller was a laboratory of creativity where traditional craftsmanship met bold new design. Spratling gathered local silversmiths and apprentices, introducing them to modern design principles while urging them to draw inspiration from Mexico’s Indigenous and pre-Columbian heritage. The result was a distinctive style that soon gained international acclaim for its ability to marry cultural authenticity with modern elegance.

Spratling was an exacting instructor and designer who insisted on one goal above all – quality of materials. Spratling gave freely of his advice and instruction and he devised a structured apprenticeship system, ensuring that his artisans mastered technical excellence as well as encouraging design innovation. This model produced a generation of extraordinary silversmiths who would go on to shape the future of the Mexican jewellery industry.

Hector Aguilar and the Taller De Las Delicias

Hector Aguilar’s path into the world of jewellery was unconventional. Unlike the plateros and apprentices in the silver workshops who came from impoverished backgrounds, Hector Aguilar came from a more affluent family based in Mexico City. For a time he worked as a photographer and then a guide for tours from Mexico City to destinations such as Taxco. He earned commissions for bringing his tours to the various Talleres and shops in Taxco where he first encountered William Spratling.

Hector Aguilar had a natural talent as a salesman, a fact that was not lost on William Spratling and in 1937 shortly after Hector Aguilar moved with his American wife to live full-time in Taxco Spratling appointed him as manager of Las Delicias.

Under Spratling’s mentorship Hector Aguilar developed not only an appreciation for the technical skill that was honed and refined at Las Delicias but he also absorbed Spratling’s philosophy of celebrating indigenous motifs and pre-Columbian patterns but with a modernist aesthetics – a skill that all the finest maestros and designers to emerge from that period shared.

Casa Borda and Los Castillo

By 1939, Hector Aguilar had outgrown his role with William Spratling and, together with the Castillo brothers, established the Taller Borda in the historic Borda Palace (also known as Casa Borda). This grand building was commissioned in the 1750s by the famous mining baron José de la Borda who also commissioned the Church of Santa Prisca, a towering cathedral on the opposite side of Plaza Borda. Both structures were colonial in style, reflecting the architecture of mid-18th-century New Spain, with some Baroque elements typical of that period.

At the front Casa Borda sits at street level to the north of Plaza Borda and is build into a steep rock face with the lowest floor opening onto the Plazuela de Bernal below.

Originally built as a private residence for Jose De La Borda with multiple halls and rooms the building had fallen into disrepair. Hector and his wife Lois restored the building with internal patios and balconies as well as passageways and stairs linking the different parts of the large building.

Taller Borda occupied much of the vast internal space – from the tin and copper workshops to benches for the scores of plateros and apprentices that passed through from Spratling’s Taller de Las Delicias and onward to their own fame and fortune.

Establishing Taller Borda

On his departure from Las Delicias Hector took many notable designers and silversmiths with him. While Hector Aguilar was the principal designer at the Taller Borda his designers were also influenced by the silversmiths who worked under him.

Amongst them were Pedro and Juan Castillo, the cousins of Reveriano Castillo, who worked at the Taller Borda for many years refining their skill in flatware and wood work. The curling, flowing baroque forms in repousse were a signature of the Castillos and one that informed the early designs to emerge from the Taller. Much like modern jewellery production in Taxco today, the silversmiths and plateros who produced work during the Mexican silver renaissance were inspired by the designs being produced around them. Families of silversmiths emerged and they did not produce designs in a vacuum – similar design elements can be found in the work of multiple silversmiths of the period.

One silversmith at Taller Borda who influenced the early style of jewellery from the workshop was Valentin Vidauretta, a Mexican designer whose silver jewellery is celebrated for its rich naturalism, bold scale, and expressive craftsmanship.

As a designer Valentin drew inspiration from the lush flora and fauna found around Taxco—bulbous flower buds, plump leaves, bloom forms—and translated those organic shapes into large silver cuffs, brooches, belts and similar adornments. His designs often leaned toward three-dimensional baroque flourishes: repoussé silverwork, raised and sculpted elements that made the flowers and leaves look as though they were growing out of the silver.

Vidauretta was also a painter, architect and horticulturist and these elements informed his technically ambitious silversmithing, giving his designs a sense of life, movement, and rootedness in the natural beauty of Taxco and its surroundings. Valentin Vidauretta produced some of the more feminine and delicate designs associated with the Taller Borda style.

Often overlooked in favour of the more dramatic and creative maestros of the silver renaissance, Pedro Castillo was an experienced silversmith who worked at Taller Borda and added his own distinctive style of flowing lines and curves to the flatware and jewellery that he produced for Hector Aguilar. His designs are distinguished by their weight and superb finish, often featuring two layer cutwork and overlay, with cut-away decorative layers soldered over base plates creating a strong graphic silhouette that only serves to enhance the Mesoamerican and pre-Hispanic glyphs, motifs and patterns that feature heavily in his designs. Hand-shaped links and panels with darkened oxidised recesses and lines heighten contrast, add depth and reveal patterns in some of the most iconic Pedro Castillo designs – techniques that suited the drama and heft of many of the later Taller Borda silver work.

Pedro’s brother Juan Castillo also worked alongside him at the Taller Borda producing similar designs that focussed on formed panels and heavy link construction in substantial bracelets, brooches and necklaces with weight and character.

Others designers and silversmiths who worked at the Taller Borda brought their influences too - among those was Salvador Garcia who produced jewellery with nature motifs and small panel work in more mid-century Taxco styling. Julio Carbajal Lopez was also a maestro at the Taller Borda renowned for his modernist designs and was often tasked with producing the prototypes and production models for Taller Borda’s new lines. Jose Luis Flores was an influential maestro at the Taller Borda and stamped his signature modern heavy link and panel style on many of the designs produced there. Some silverwork individually ascribed to Hector Aguilar were often designed and executed by Jose Luis. His clean modern silhouettes in statement sterling silver make his designs highly collectable in their own right.

Hector Aguilar’s Rise to Prominence

By the 1940s, Hector Aguilar had fully emerged as a master designer and entrepreneur. Under his leadership, Taller Borda had become both a creative studio and a thriving commercial hub, employing over three hundred artisans at its peak. Aguilar preserved the rigorous apprenticeship system he inherited from William Spratling, ensuring technical mastery and innovation remained at the workshop’s heart. His own vision, however, was more sculptural and architectural, producing works monumental in form yet wearable in scale.

The onset of World War II disrupted European jewellery supply to the United States, opening a vast opportunity for Mexican silver. Taller Borda’s bold designs, overlay silhouettes, and modernist aesthetic perfectly suited American demand for striking jewellery and silverware. The war brought an additional requirement: military insignia, identification bracelets, and bombardier badges. Backed by Gerald Rosenberger, co-owner of the American costume jewellery brand CORO, Aguilar installed mechanised production at Taller Borda to meet this demand.

Alongside military commissions, Coro contracted Taller Borda to produce costume jewellery to satisfy demand that couldn’t be met by wartime restrictions on precious metals, further expanding the workshop’s output. These pieces, many cast in base metals or 925 silver with gold plate as a cost-effective alternative to solid gold, were often marked “Coro Made in Mexico’ and ‘Made in Mexico Coro Sterling”. At the time, they provided an accessible introduction to Aguilar’s aesthetic for American consumers. Today, these Coro collaborations are recognized as highly collectible pieces of design history, bridging the worlds of fine and costume jewelry and cementing Aguilar’s role as a designer of international significance.

Taller Borda also secured contracts with leading U.S. retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, joining other major Taxco ateliers in a wartime boom. This period marked the workshop’s peak, both in scale and international recognition. Aguilar’s workshop produced a remarkable variety of works: flatware, hollowware and jugs with rosewood handles, heavy silver pieces adorned with pre-Hispanic motifs, tea sets, candelabras in copper, trays, bowls, lighting fixtures, leather furniture, mirrors and an enduring legacy of jewellery inspired by Mesoamerican art and glyphs as well as the flora and fauna local to Taxco and its surroundings.

As WWII ended Taller Borda continued producing and commissioning jewellery, flatware, and decorative objects that reflected Hector Aguilar’s signature style—strong, architectural lines combined with a distinctly Mexican sensibility. His creations resonated not only in Mexico but also with international collectors, solidifying his reputation as one of the most important figures of the Mexican Silver Renaissance. Hector Aguilar’s later designs focused on mastery of shapes and refinement of function. Take this rectangle box link bracelet in 940 silver with a gold wash. The mechanism of the clasp is distinctive to Taller Borda and the link attachments are hidden in modern covers that move with the bracelet like the scale of a snake – innovative design well ahead of its time.

As well as his partnership with the American jewellery brand Coro Hector Aguilar’s acclaim as a prolific designer and producer of distinctive jewellery of quality led to collaborations with major U.S. retail brands, most notably Neiman Marcus, which showcased his silverwork to an elite American clientele. His jewellery and flatware became symbols of sophistication, blending modern design with cultural authenticity in a way that resonated with a global audience.

With trade routes restored after WWII American demand for Mexican silver declined sharply. Tastes moved to more slender, feminine jewellery styles which were not representative of the designs produced in Taxco at the time. Taller Borda gradually diminished from a bustling workshop of hundreds to around twenty-five artisans before Aguilar closed it in 1966, leaving behind a rich legacy of inspirational design and technical excellence.

Hector Aguilar closed the Taller Borda and shop in Taxco in 1966 and retired to Zihuatanejo on the Pacific coast of southern Mexico with his family where he died in the 1970s.

The Legacy of the Mexican Silver Renaissance

The story of the Mexican Silver Renaissance is, at its heart, a story of cultural rebirth—where history, artistry, and modern design converged to create something entirely new. William Spratling provided the spark, reimagining Taxco’s dormant silver industry and establishing a workshop model that nurtured raw talent into mastery. His vision of blending Mexico’s Indigenous and pre-Columbian heritage with modernist principles reshaped the very language of jewellery design in Mexico.

Hector Aguilar’s journey from store manager to celebrated design master illustrates the enduring impact of William Spratling’s Taller and his insistence on design excellence above all else. The mentorship Hector received and the creative environment of the workshop shaped his trajectory and those of the silversmiths he employed, while his own vision and innovation carried Mexican silver design into bold new territory. In this way, Hector Aguilar became both a product of Spratling’s legacy and a trailblazer who expanded its horizons.

His legacy endures in the continuing reverence for Taxco silver and in the recognition of Mexican silversmithing as one of the great artistic traditions of the 20th century. For collectors, owning a genuine Hector Aguilar Taller Borda piece—whether a finely crafted silver necklace or a gold-plated Coro jewel—is to hold a fragment of history shaped by one of Mexico’s most visionary designers.

Today, Aguilar’s designs are prized by collectors not only for their beauty but also for their historical significance. His work embodies a key moment in Mexican cultural identity: the synthesis of Indigenous tradition, modernist aesthetics, and international collaboration and demonstrated that jewellery could serve as both cultural expression and wearable sculpture.

Together, Spratling and Aguilar—and the many artisans, plateros and maestros they trained—turned Taxco into an international centre of design. Their legacy is visible today in the enduring admiration for Mexican silver, treasured both as art and as cultural history. Each piece, whether a monumental silver cuff or a finely linked necklace, carries with it the spirit of innovation and pride that defined an era.

Sources:

Mexican Silver by Penny C Morrill & Carole A Berk

File on Spratling by William Spratling

Mexican Tales by Bernice I Goodspeed