The town of Tlacolula de Matamoros, Oaxaca, is widely known for its Sunday market or tianguis. Tourists and villagers from throughout the region flock there to shop, eat or stock up on whatever is needed for home or workshop.
Visitors know little about the textile traditions of Tlacolula, where up until the 1960′s cotton and silk ikat rebozos with long, intricately hand-tied fringes (puntas) were still hand-woven there to be used with versatility as head scarf, baby and bundle carrier, and shawl. Today, rayon, called seda (silk in Spanish), or cotton ikat rebozos are imported from the state of Mexico to fill the market gap of the locally lost art.
Another local tradition that was lost was the making of needle lace. Today, this tradition is being revived by Tamara Rivas Vazquez in Tlacolula de Matamoros where she lives and works. Making needle lace is a laborious art requiring exceptional dexterity and a lot of patience. Its origins are European. Needle lace became popular in Mexico in the 19th century. The technique consists of fashioning a network of tiny knots that are tied, one by one, using a single thread and needle. Tamara learned the technique by interviewing elderly women in Tlacolula and recording their knowledge.
Tamara says that the strips of needle lace are called cambalaches. In the example of her work, on display at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca, Tamera used industrial cotton poplin embellished with needle lace and black embroidery as part of the smocking. It took her eight months to complete the piece, shown above and below, which is now part of the Museo Textil de Oaxaca permanent collection. Notice the intricate needle lace work under the armpits. This part is called, humorously enough, “the louse’s window.”
For the past two weeks, Tamara and her husband, Alfonso Gonzalez Inaldonado, have been at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca giving a class on the intricate art of making needle lace. He is the pattern designer and they work together as a team –a typical practice in artisan households. This is an intensive, 2-week experience. Some of the participants are wearing magnifying glasses because the work is so detailed. Two have come from Mexico City and one from Colorado to learn this technique.
Judith Radtke and Jo Ann Feher just told me about this great show and sale coming up on Saturday, February 25 in Oaxaca City. If you are in town, they invite you to stop by. You will also have an opportunity to meet the women who weave these wonderful pieces in cotton, wool and natural dyes.
Weavings, Weavers and Wine
Saturday, February 25, 2012 — 5 pm – 7pm Jose Vasconcelos 104 (runs off Tinoco Y Palacios), Figueroa, Oaxaca, Tel. 516 – 71 43
Enjoy Wine and Cheese.
View exquisite hand weavings by Mixteca Weavers.
Meet the weavers: Edith, Marcellina and Edith Inez.
The book, Weaving Yarn, Weaving Cultures, Weaving Lives: A Circle of Women in Oaxaca, Mexico will also be available for sale.
All proceeds go to the weavers.
Learn tapestry weaving in a workshop with Federico Chavez Sosa, March 14-17, 2012 in Teotitlan del Valle.
After calling ahead and making an appointment, we took a taxi to the outskirts of San Cristobal de las Casas at the end of a dirt road to find the headquarters of Camino de los Altos. This is a cooperative of 130 weavers who make extraordinary textiles.
They will be exhibiting and selling their work at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca from Friday through Sunday, February 17-19, 2012. If you are in Oaxaca, you won’t want to miss this event!
The cooperative began in the mid-1990′s by eight French designers who had a passion for Mayan traditions, textiles, and indigenous design. El Camino selects ancient traditional colors and re-imagines them. They produce bags, children’s clothing, pillow covers, scarves, shawls, table cloths, runners, napkins, and dish towels on sturdy, highest quality fabric that is hand-woven on back strap looms in five Chiapas weaving villages. Six sales are held each year in Paris and at other selected locations around the world.
Wool pillow covers can be the natural color of the sheep or dyed with either palo de Brazil or cochineal to yield a rich red. Mayan women then embellish them with traditional hand-embroidered designs. The cotton is dyed with industrial color. The color combinations are juicy and intense, and based upon traditional weaving patterns, too.
As a cooperative, the members meet together to decide next steps, new design and color directions, and pattern innovations. Their commitment is to each other — everyone must have work. The marketplace speaks, so together they determine what needs to be altered, adapted, changed or discontinued.
[Cultural note: In traditional villages, the men work in the fields and do required community service (cargos). Women are responsible for all the household work, and care for children and in-laws. We hear that many of the women who are now able to earn their own income through weaving and other crafts, choose not to marry to achieve some level of independence.]
El Camino de los Altos operates through the sale of their work and the support of a French foundation, and are able to employ four full-time staff. The money they earn goes directly to the weavers. In addition, they are training indigenous women in marketing, sales, production, inventory control and other business development aspects that will ensure ongoing success.
A Chiapas retail store, Madre Tierra, sells Camino de los Altos textiles. It is located across from the sweets market on Insurgentes in the courtyard behind the fabulous bakery that sells the most delicious whole grain onion garlic buns.
Behind a tall wooden gate about six blocks from the Zocalo at #38 Guadalupe Victoria is the Museo de Trajes Regionales. The private collection of traditional indigenous dress is an inspiration of Sergio Castro Martinez, a former Chiapas state senator (2000-2003), engineer and lay healer. Señor Castro gives personal guided visits in French, English, Spanish and Italian. At the same time, he also ministers to those in need of health care at no cost.
Sergio Castro Martinez, hero of Chiapas
As textile aficionados, we asked our B&B host Bela if she would contact Sr. Castro and make an appointment for us to visit the museum on the first day of our arrival in San Cristobal de las Casas. Visitors are asked to arrive at 6:00 p.m. As we approached, a woman exited the house with her head covered and accompanied by family members. Sr. Castro provides free care to people who have burn injuries and also for those with diabetes.
Several times during our guided visit, he excused himself to help a toddler brought in by his young mother, and then to care for an older man, and then to take urgent phone calls. He has been honored on multiple occasions by international and local civic and governmental groups for his humanitarian works.
San Andres Larrainzar huipil
The museum is a must-see for anyone interested in indigenous history, culture, and regional weaving/textile traditions. Sr. Castro explains in depth the differences between the tribal groups of the region, their languages, marriage and family customs, political and social systems, and the evolution and change in the costume design and materials used. He also, through his museum collection, shows the various special traje (dress) for the leaders of each village, as well as for weddings and other ceremonies. All the traditional dress in this region is created on fabric woven on back -trap looms.
This is an important orientation for anyone who wants to go out to explore the more accessible villages.
For example:
1. In the pueblo of San Juan Chamula, the traditional cape and skirt is made from black sheep wool that is woven on a back-strap loom. The long fibers are not cut but pulled out so that the garment has a wooly look to it, resembling the coat of the sheep itself. Sheep are family pets, used for their wool and are never eaten.
Sunday Market at San Juan Chamula
2. In the pueblo of Zinacantan the traditional color of the women’s chal (shawl) and agua (skirt), and the men’s poncho used to be pink or rose colored until about four years ago when there was a decided shift to the color blue, says Sr. Castro. The community grows flowers (there are greenhouses covering the mountain valley landscape) and this is reflected in the intricately embroidered (mostly by machine, some still by hand) floral and bird patterns on the cloth.
3. In Amantenango del Valle, the women create clay figures, mostly jaguars, chickens and roosters, but also ollas (jars), bowls, and other functional pieces. The women’s huipile is evolving. Traditional women wear a very geometric blouse with predominantly gold and red coloration. The newer design coming into vogue is a frilly collar that trims an embroidered bodice, all synthetic, shiny material. The ultimate adornment is a fancy pleated mandil or apron that goes over the top.
We also see traje from Aguatenango, Oxchul, Ocosingo, the intricate yellow, red and blue brocade diamonds from Las Margaritas, Pantelho, the red and black brocade weavings from San Andres Larrainzar. From Mayas Lacandones who live along the Usumacinta River that borders Guatemala, we learn the dress is bark that has been beaten and softened with a stick, then adorned with painted red colors representing the sun, moon and stars.
Visitors are asked to give a free-will offering (suggested minimum is 100 pesos per person)) for the explanation/tour that helps support Castro’s work. There is a small room that includes photographs of the severity of burns caused by carelessness, fireworks, and handheld firecrackers associated with ceremonies and rituals.
Rapid societal changes are having an impact on the weaving and its quality. There is widespread use of synthetic materials and alteration of styles and designs to suit the tourist market. Handwork is done on store-bought commercial fabric (synthetic polyester or cotton blend). It is no longer easy to find punto de cruz (needlepoint work) or hand embroidery using naturally dyed fibers.
This is the poorest state in Mexico. Many migrate in search of jobs. Younger people are shedding traditional dress as they desire to assimilate. Others move from villages to larger cities in search of employment.
Contact:
Sergio Castro Martinez, #38 Guadalupe Victoria, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. Phone: 967-678-4289. sergiocastrosc@gmail.com
San Cristobal de las Casas is a compact, walkable mountain town filled with energy, cafes that seat 10 or 15 people at most, coffee and wine bars, and villagers from indigenous pueblos selling crafts in markets, street corners and along the foot-traffic-only promenades that criss-cross the center. Textile cooperatives abound and the city attracts an international artist-counterculture community of creatives.
The textiles here are extraordinary and I have spent the first two days exploring, looking, discerning the different quality in handcrafts and weaving. In the days to come, I’ll write about our visit to Na Bolom and highlight the visit we had with Sergio Castro in his private textile museum near the zocalo. Nearby organic coffee farms, locally owned and operated, offer a rich, tasty brew.
First impressions can always be a little dangerous because I have a tendency to jump to conclusions, especially after a long overnight bus ride with very little sleep. This town is growing on me. It is very different from Oaxaca which is an elegant, colonial city with wide thoroughfares and distinguished cuisine. San Cristobal seems like an outpost in comparison. It reminds me of Beijing hutongs — narrow winding streets, clay tiled roofs covering steep pitched roofs, weathered wood and adobe structures, ancient wood doors and windows kept shut with hand-forged metal. But, it is full of hidden treasures.
There is character here. And, it is an international crossroads between Guatemala and Mexico. San Cristobal attracts backpackers, artists, spiritual seekers and textile mavens. We have also come across university professors from the U.S. who research the indigenous languages, culture, social and political systems. It is rich, especially because of centuries-old resistance to oppressive government. Take your choice: Aztecs, Spaniards, and more contemporary varieties. Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatistas are revered here and have a presence in the city with an indigenous handcraft gallery. Every textile shop and street vendor sells a version of a Zapatista cloth doll with black hat and face mask.
The climate now is very chilly nights and mild, partly cloudy days that make it easy to sit at a sidewalk cafe during the day and snuggle up next to a fire next to the restaurant table at night.
It’s 8:45 a.m. and time for breakfast, so I will write more, catch as catch can.
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Lost Textile Tradition of Making Needle Lace Revived in Oaxaca
The town of Tlacolula de Matamoros, Oaxaca, is widely known for its Sunday market or tianguis. Tourists and villagers from throughout the region flock there to shop, eat or stock up on whatever is needed for home or workshop.
Another local tradition that was lost was the making of needle lace. Today, this tradition is being revived by Tamara Rivas Vazquez in Tlacolula de Matamoros where she lives and works. Making needle lace is a laborious art requiring exceptional dexterity and a lot of patience. Its origins are European. Needle lace became popular in Mexico in the 19th century. The technique consists of fashioning a network of tiny knots that are tied, one by one, using a single thread and needle. Tamara learned the technique by interviewing elderly women in Tlacolula and recording their knowledge.
Tamara says that the strips of needle lace are called cambalaches. In the example of her work, on display at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca, Tamera used industrial cotton poplin embellished with needle lace and black embroidery as part of the smocking. It took her eight months to complete the piece, shown above and below, which is now part of the Museo Textil de Oaxaca permanent collection. Notice the intricate needle lace work under the armpits. This part is called, humorously enough, “the louse’s window.”
For the past two weeks, Tamara and her husband, Alfonso Gonzalez Inaldonado, have been at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca giving a class on the intricate art of making needle lace. He is the pattern designer and they work together as a team –a typical practice in artisan households. This is an intensive, 2-week experience. Some of the participants are wearing magnifying glasses because the work is so detailed. Two have come from Mexico City and one from Colorado to learn this technique.
For classes about this and other textile topics, contact the Museo Textil de Oaxaca. To learn traditional tapestry weaving with naturally dyed wool, attend a workshop in Teotitlan del Valle.
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Posted in Clothing Design, Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Textiles, Tapestries & Weaving, Travel & Tourism
Tagged art, blogsherpa, clothing, design, fiber, huipil, Mexico, needle lace, Oaxaca, textiles, Tlacolula de Matamoros