Below is a good article about the plight of artisans in the face of the greed of importers and resellers.  It seems that Chinese imports are cheaper than the locally-made product so the resellers can make more money selling the imports.  Sales have plummetted and a cultural mainstay is in danger.  I will try to get permission to translate the article and publish it here.  This problem is close to my heart because although for now this problem is minimal in Granada (I know of only one “factory” importing Chinese guitars and labelling them as Granada guitars) the day might come when we need to defend our reputations.  The prestige of the guitar-makers of Granada comes from the quality of the instruments and the fact that each instrument is signed by the maker and this guarantees it to be a “handmade” guitar.  Handmade meaning not that no machinery was used but rather that the hands of the maker control every step of the process; there are no automated processes like there might be in a factory.  Furthermore the instrument is started and finished by one person (unless the maker has an apprentice).  This reputation is threatened by those who import guitars form China or Valencia or elsewhere and label them with a Granada label (a glaring fraud if ever there was one), by those who operate a factory and claim to make “luthier” or artisan instruments and by those who generally try to take  advantage of Granada’s reputation.

Guitarras de Paracho, una valoración artesanal, ante la nueva industria china Lucía Cacari Alejos

La actividad artesanal de Michoacán goza de un gran reconocimiento, tanto a nivel  nacional como internacional por su alto contenido artístico y cultural. La laudería es el trabajo que se realiza en Paracho Michoacán, cuya  ocupación es  la construcción de la guitarra  artesanal que ha sido una  actividad económica muy tradicional de este lugar…..continue reading in spanish