Voladores after flight, Cuetzalan, Puebla, Mexico
Cuetzalan (Kwetz-ah-lahn), designated as a Pueblo Magico, is a mountain town in the Sierra Norte tropical rainforest, three and-a-half hours on the Via Rapido bus and 183 km from the city of Puebla and three hours from Veracruz on the Caribbean. The only months it doesn’t rain here are April and May.
It is a lush, green misty, mysterious wonderland. Orchids drape and cling to the sides of trees. Men in white shirts and pants, straw hats, leather thong sandals, sling palm woven bags across their shoulders. Women are either barefoot or wear ballerina slippers.
Stunning, intricate needlework blouses that depict the flowers and wildlife of the region cover them. Children scamper and adults pick their way carefully up and down the sawtooth stone steps that frame the steep, granite cobbled streets. The slippery stones remind me of climbing Palenque.
I’ve been wanting to make this pilgrimage trip for six years, ever since I heard about Cuetzalan from photographer friends Sam and and Tom Robbins. Their extraordinary black and white art photos of steep, cobblestone streets lined with near vertical steps were engraved in my memory.
I invited my sister Barbara, who lives in Santa Cruz, California to join me to explore this rich textile region of Mexico. On the day our Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat ended last Friday morning, I was on a four-hour bus to Puebla, where we met, spent the night, and then started out on this see-Mexico-by-bus journey together.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon in time for the extraordinary once a week Sunday market (tianguis). It was not difficult to spend the entire day roaming market stalls. The town square was obscured by covered stalls filled with handcrafts, fruit, vegetables, and meat.
In the afternoon, the Voladores (the flyers) climbed to the top of a 100 foot wood pole on the Zocalo in front the the church and spread their wings in flight, arms and legs twirling, outstretched, performing the pre-Hispanic ritual that guarantees renewal of life.
In addition to their needlework skill, Cuetzalan women also weave quechquemitls (kech-keh-mees). These are the wonderful over the head, one-piece “shawls” that were designed by Nahautl women and adopted by indigenous peoples throughout Mexico. There is the wool variety, first handwoven on the back-strap loom, then embellished with cross stitch floral patterns or with intricate running stitches that tell a story of the natural world. The women also weave quechquemitls using natural manta or synthetically colored cotton (not many are using natural dyes any more).
These can be embellished with commercially purchased fringes. Others are even lighter weight (remember, it’s humid here) and woven with white polyester interspersed with glittery threads that illuminate in the sunlight. The tips of these are embroidered with an intricate bird feet pattern on the two points of the quechquemitls. The women are shy but their traje (costume) is filled with exuberance and they are proud of their handwork.
Our Cuetzalan base for two nights was Hotel Taselotzin, Calle Yoloxochitl, S/N Barrio de Zacatipan, hoteltaselotzin.com.mx, phone (223) 331-0480. I did my research. Fulbright Scholars participants stay here. So do U.S. university study abroad programs based in Puebla. While we were there a group of Dartmouth College students were staying at the hotel and going out during the day to work with young people in rural communities. The hotel is operated by a women’s cooperative that supports artisans and educational programs. They have an excellent kitchen that prepares delicious food (order sopa de hongos — wild mushroom soup) at very reasonable prices and a lovely gift shop with high quality work. The location is not central, but it is quiet, lush and peaceful. Rooms have private baths.
Highlights of Cuetzalan:
- Of course! the Sunday market, a frenzy of activity. You need to know your textiles to pick out the higher quality pieces
- Casa de la Cultura, Calle Miguel Alvarado #18, tel. 233 105 2776
- Mercado de Artesanias, Calle Miguel Alvarado across from the Casa de la Cultura. Here you will find the better quality handwork.
- Francesca Rivera Perez has a stall in this market and her work is stunning. We splurged here!
- Breakfast at Cafe Epoc de Oro on the zocalo — great coffee; order chilaquiles with pollo in salsa verde.
- Return to the Zocalo on Monday morning where all is clean, quiet, beautiful to see the details of life. Have breakfast at El Portal: delicious!
- Yes, to those incredible seed and bean necklaces. The best ones are strung with beautiful, twisted macrame chord.
Cultural Observations:
- Many of the traditional people, especially the older folks, turn their heads or walk away from the camera. Always ask before taking a photo that is up close and personal.
- Fog muted vistas offer photographers glorious opportunities to capture sense of place.
- Traditional practices of weaving with natural dyes and manta cloth are dying out with the older generation.
- There are evangelical Christians working in Cuetzalan. This is a very poor area and the promises of a better life are very appealing to some.
Clothing Recommendations: It’s damp here and everything is moist. Bring along a polypropylene shirt and leggings, wool socks, wool sweather or buy a beautiful wool quechquemitl. Barbara suggests a walking stick for the steep, slippery cobblestone streets, a rain jacket with hood and a clear plastic cover for your camera with a rubber band to keep it dry. I wore a wool hat and my Patagonia shirt and leggings under a skirt and short sleeve top. During the day I topped it off with one wool quechquemitl. At night, I needed two to keep me warm.
How to Get There: A direct Via bus from Puebla CAPU costs 116 pesos one way per person. There are actually two schedules. The Via Rapido takes 3-1/2 hours and makes two stops. There is another version that makes more stops along the way and takes an hour longer. Take ginger drops in water and chew candied ginger and/or take a motion sickness pill if you are susceptible, since the last hour of the trip is on a narrow, winding mountain road.
Indigo Dye Workshop: It’s Called Shibori, Not Tie Dye
Actually, using resist dye technique using indigo to create patterns and designs on cotton is called shibori, tritik, amarra or plangi(depending upon country of origin). It’s not the hippie dippie 60′s tie dye that’s been reincarnated on beach blanket bingo T-shirts. It’s high fashion wearable art. Not long ago, I saw an Eileen Fisher designer label Made in Japan shibori design on a finely woven cotton scarf dyed with indigo at a Nordstrom selling for over $100USD. The technique is universal.
Norma's Indigo Dyed Shibori Napkins -- A Gift for Jacob and Michelle
As frequently as once per month, Eric Chavez Santiago teaches a hands-on indigo dye workshop for people of all ages at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca. At a recent workshop, a mother, father and baby sister accompanied a six-year-old who made a fish design on a white cotton T-shirt. Dad was right by his side and the learning was a fun family adventure. Other participants included local artists, university design program students, and visiting tourists.
Indigo can be used to dye cotton, wool, alpaca, silk, linen and the fiber of the agave plant. Some women in Oaxaca villages even use indigo to dye their hair. Dyeing with indigo is all about chemistry. Cellulose fibers such linen, cotton and agave absorb less indigo to get an intense color than do protein fibers of silk and wool. Said another way, it takes less indigo to dye cotton than wool. That’s why, we are using 100% cotton for the workshop. Polyester blends just won’t work because indigo saturates only the surface of the fiber, not it’s core.
Look for Felted Fashion Oaxaca Style, coming in February 2013. It includes dyeing wool roving, silk, and cotton with natural materials and making your fabric into luxurious scarves, blouses, wraps. Contact me to get on the mailing list for complete course description. Instructors are clothing designer Jessica de Haas, Vancouver, B.C., and Eric Chavez Santiago, Oaxaca, Mexico. Limited to 8 participants.
The process is fairly simple. First, we rinse the white fabric (I dyed white, handwoven cotton napkins from the Amuzgo tribe) in clear water to soften it. Then, we squeeze out all the moisture and make our design.
1. To make the shibori design, you can make accordian folds and then tie this together with rubber bands or with string. You can drape cloth over marbles or beans, securing them with string or a rubber band. You can whirl the fabric and then tie it with string or rubber bands.
2. To make the tritik design, you use a needle and thread to create a very specific pattern, folding the cloth and then sewing through it.
3. It probably takes about an hour to make the design. Tie a lead string onto your fabric so you can easily fish it out of the water.
4. Dip the folded and/or sewn fabric into the dye pot for 20 minutes. Be careful to immerse it gently into the solution. Do not stir or disturb in any way. Pull the piece out of the dye pot with the lead string.
5. Hang on a line from the string until the fabric changes from green-yellow to blue, for 15-20 minutes.
6. Repeat two more times.
7. Remove the rubber bands or thread.
8. Rinse well in water. Then, dip in vinegar water for 5 minutes to set the dye, soften the fabric and remove any of the alkaline residual and garlicky odor
9. Let hang to dry.
→ 4 Comments
Posted in Clothing Design, Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Workshops and Retreats
Tagged art, blogsherpa, class, clothing, course, design, handmade, indigo, Mexico, Oaxaca, shibori, textiles, tritik, workshop