La Platería: from Taxco to Chicago

La Platería: from Taxco to Chicago
Anita Li

En Español

Wendy Sanchez’s family has been making silver pendants, jewelry, and statues for three generations in Taxco de Alarcón, Mexico. Five years ago, the 35-year-old brought her family business to Chicago and started La Platería. The social media business started as a hobby, but Sánchez said it generated enough revenue that around four months ago, she started working on La Platería full-time.

Sánchez moved to Chicago 10 years ago, but she is proud to be from Taxco, a city known for its sterling silver craftsmanship. Sterling silver jewel is durable, and will not tarnish. 

Sellers can claim their products are sterling silver or from Taxco, but buyers often have no way of verifying if it’s true. “There’s a lot of fraud these days,” Sanchez said

Sánchez’s entire family lives in Taxco, where each member specializes in a different aspect of the silversmithing industry. They oversee the entire process, from when the silver is extracted from Taxco’s rich silver mines, to the design and manufacturing of the finished products.

Photo Credit: La Platería Facebook page


Now, customers can order earrings, rings, pendants and more from La Plateria’s Instagram and Facebook page.

“You can clean the silver with toothpaste, baking soda,” said Sánchez.  “Because we’re direct manufacturers, obviously we’re selling a material that we know, that comes from us.”

Sánchez chose a silhouette of Taxco’s famous Church of Santa Prisca as the business logo. Her hope is that one day La Platería has a physical location. 

“What I enjoy the most is doing what I like, especially surrounded by my family,” Sánchez said. “For me, it’s been an honor.”


Anita Li is a senior at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, where she studies journalism. She’s previously interned at NPR member station WLRN in Miami and television station FOX 5 DC in Washington, D.C. At school, Anita has worked at Northwestern’s student newspaper the Daily Northwestern, mainly working on the audio desk. She grew up in the D.C. metro area and loves eating tiramisu, dancing, learning languages and making people laugh.

You can connect with her here.

Publisher’s Notes: This story, among others, was produced by undergraduate students in the bilingual reporting class at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media & Integrated Marketing Communications.

Led by Prof. Mei-Ling Hopgood, the class aims to help journalism students practice sensitive and ethical engagement and reporting with multicultural communities in Spanish and English. Students visited the Illinois Chamber of Commerce Business Expo at Navy Pier last fall and interviewed local business owners.


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