Like her sisters, Mae Tapia and Anna Archuleta, Anita Suazo (b. 1937) learned the basics of the traditional form of her craft from their mother, Belen Tafoya Tapia. A first cousin of Margaret Tafoya, Belen was known for beautiful polychrome slipped, painted and carved redware and blackware. Anita's specialties include carved blackware, carved, slipped and painted polychrome redware, and melon pots. Often collaborating with her husband, Joseph Suazo, Anita made blackware and redware, polychrome redware, two-tone black on black carved pottery and black melon pots. She liked to carve some pots and paint others with avanyu, kiva step, cloud, feather and other designs passed down from a thousand years ago, and more.

Anita first entered a piece in the juried competitions of the Santa Fe Indian Market in 1979 and was consistently earning ribbons ever since from Indian Market, the Eight Northern Pueblo Artists and Craftsman Show and the New Mexico State Fair. She was a participant, along with Margaret Tafoya and 42 other Santa Clara potters, in a 1985 show at the Sid Deusch Gallery in New York. In 1986 she earned the Jack Hoover Memorial Award for excellence in Santa Clara pottery. Pieces of her work can be seen at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos and the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe.

Anita taught pottery classes at the University of California at Davis and at the University of New Mexico. She retired from making pottery around 2010.

Some of the Awards Anita Earned

• 2011 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market. Class II - Pottery, Div. C - Traditional, native clay, hand built, carved, Honorable Mention
• 2004 Santa Fe Indian Market. Class II - Pottery, Div. C - Traditional pottery, carved or incised, Cat. 1001 - Jars, Third Place
  - Cat. 1002 - Wedding jars, Second Place
• 2000 Santa Fe Indian Market. Class. II - Pottery, Div. C - Traditional pottery, carved or incised, Cat. 1004 - Bowls (over 7" in diameter), Second Place
• 1997 Santa Fe Indian Market. Class II - Pottery, Div. B - Traditional pottery, undecorated, Cat. 903 - Melon bowls, Third Place
• 1995 Santa Fe Indian Market. Class. II - Pottery, Div. B - Traditional pottery, undecorated, Cat. 902 - Jars (over 9 inches tall), Third Place
  - Div. D - Traditional pottery, carved, Cat. 1101 - Jars (up to 7 inches tall), Second Place
• 1993 Santa Fe Indian Market. Class II - Pottery, Div. E - Traditional pottery, undecorated, Cat. 903 - Melon bowls and jars, black, Second Place
• 1992 Santa Fe Indian Market. Class II - Pottery, Div. B - Traditional pottery, undecorated, Cat. 905 - Other bowls, First Place
  - Div. E - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface, Cat. 1206 - Figures, Third Place
• 1991 Santa Fe Indian Market. Class II - Pottery, Div. B - Traditional pottery, undecorated, Cat. 901 - Jars (to 8 inches), Third Place
• 1990 Santa Fe Indian Market. Class. II - Pottery, Div. E - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface, Cat. 1104 - Bowls (over 8 inches in diameter), Third Place
• 1989 Santa Fe Indian Market. Class II - Pottery, Div. B - Traditional pottery, undecorated, Cat. 803 - Melon bowls, black, Third Place
  - Cat. 805, other bowls, Second Place
• 1988 Gallup InterTribal Ceremonial. Class IV - Pottery, Cat. 10, Jar, seed jar, canteen, Second Place
• 1986 Santa Fe Indian Market. Jack Hoover Memorial Award for Excellence in Santa Clara Pottery
• Class II - Pottery, Div. B - Traditional pottery, undecorated, Cat. 803 - Melon bowls, Second Place
• 1984 Santa Fe Indian Market. Class II - Pottery, Div. E - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface, Cat. 1101 - Jars (up to 8 inches tall), Third Place
• 1983 Santa Fe Indian Market. Class II - Pottery, Div. D - Traditional, carved, Third Place