The Purepechas are acutely linked to ancient Michoacan although over the centuries they have not occupied the entire territory; they shared it with other ethnic or linguistic groups, some of which settled in the area called Tierra Caliente (the Hot Lands), which is where the sculpture that we see came from. The area consists of the middle strip of Michoacan, from the east to west; it is an extensive depression surrounded by mountain ranges; to the north by formations from the transverse neovolcanic belt, such as the Sierra de Tancitaro, and to the west and south by the Sierra Madre del Sur. It was occupied by Nahuatl speakers at the end of the fifteenth century and beginning of the sixteenth called “tecos” by the tarascos, a term which is translated as “mexicano”; furthermore, this seems to have taken place some time ago when these types of works were produced.

Isabel Kelly, the extraordinary pioneering anthropologist in studies of Western Mesoamerica, placed these specimens in the Tepetate phase and called them “Capiral figures” after the place name in the municipality of Apatzingan. In general, few examples are known of though it is considered feasible that they fall within the scope of a prolonged tradition of Michoacan ceramic sculpture that began in the Middle preclassic period of the El Opeño culture, and continued into Late preclassic period in the Chupicuaro culture and then during the Classic period, when it was apparent to a greater extent in the area of valleys, swampland and lakes of the northern strip.

The most outstanding characteristic of this artistic tradition is the almost exclusive figurativism of women that appear to be standing (in reality they cannot stand this way), nudes or semi-nudes and with varied and eye-catching ornaments consisting of solid volumes. The main distinctive traits are: the pronounced flattening of the upper part of the head, which indicates an artificial tabular oblique deformation of the cranium, the very elongated embossed vulva, the large head in the shape of an inverted triangle, short arms extended from the torso, long legs, and a rough surface demonstrating a lack of polishing.

This piece has a hair band with bangs or pendents; the eyes are “button” shaped, they are outlined in black, as are the pupils of this same color on the white of the retinas. The necklace is very eye-catching and made of various lines (in other pieces necklaces have elongated pendents that hang down as far as the waist). As well as the eyes, the earrings are painted white, and the hair band and necklace in red and white. The nipples, the outlines of the ribs and the long legs show a certain desire towards capturing a more realistic anatomy. The Capiral sculptures were polychromed after firing, and therefore do not conserve the layer depicting the image. Some specimens in better condition show the ocher surface as the basic color of the skin, the black and white of the eyes and simple motifs in rust red and black in the manner of a painting or body tattoos.

Another trait is the wide mouth with teeth represented by excavations in diagonal lines. Certain attributes of Capril figures such as the triangular head, the flattened forehead, and the use, in some cases, of a layer that reaches as far as the waist and skirt, appear to have their history in the same area of Apatzingan, in the figures that Kelly called Delicias, dated between 300 and 600 A.D., and whose presence has also been recorded in sites such as Jiquilpan, various sites in the Cuitzeo basin and in Teotihuacan, in a building connected with inhabitants originally from Michoacan.