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Oaxaca City Textile Walking Tour

Posted on Thursday, December 23, 2021 | 1 comment

Oaxaca, Mexico, is known for her textile diversity. Cotton and silk threads, and wool yarn are woven into amazing fabrics that become clothing, home goods, and rugs. Many pieces are unique and tell a story of family, community, beliefs and spirituality. In the city and throughout remote mountain villages, women and men weave using ancient technologies – back strap loom, pedal loom and flying shuttle loom. Each technique yields a different type of cloth. Some threads are even dyed using natural plant materials such as wild marigold, pecan nuts and shells, tree bark and leaves, and with the nopal cactus parasitic insect that yields carminic acid. You may have heard of it: cochineal. This was the most valuable export from Mexico during the Spanish conquest next to gold and silver.

Pinotepa de Don Luis, Oaxaca indigo and caracol purpura dyed blusa

Our walking tour is four hours starting at 9:30 a.m. and ending at 1:30 p.m. It is designed to introduce you to the textile traditions of Oaxaca. During our time together, we explain the processes, and show you a range of textiles offered at various price points. We will visit four venues, including market vendors and boutique galleries to discuss, evaluate and compare quality, workmanship, design, materials, and weaving types and styles.

This is an ADULTS ONLY walking tour. It is not suitable for children under the age of 14. We limit this tour to 6 adults.

Naturally dyed wool rugs woven on the tapestry loom, Teotitlan del Valle

By participating, you will gain a better understanding for what is produced for tourist consumption and what is made for personal use, the stories that are woven into the cloth by indigenous people, the difference between commercial or handwoven cloth, and how to determine value and cost.

Gala traditional huipil from San Felipe Usila, Oaxaca

This is an essential foundation tour to discover how textiles are an integral part of Oaxaca’s rich culture and traditions. We meet at a central Oaxaca historic district location and cover about 12 city blocks. Be prepared to walk! Wear comfy shoes and bring a hat, sunscreen and water.

Indigo-dyed shawl on the back strap loom, San Pablo Villa de Mitla

Your Oaxaca Cultural Navigator is Eric Chavez Santiago, a weaver and natural dye expert who was the founding director of education at the Museo Textile de Oaxaca, and former managing director of folk-art gallery Andares del Arte Popular. Eric speaks Zapotec, Spanish and English. He is a partner in Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC with founder Norma Schafer and part of the Casa Fe y Lola family textile organization.

Book Your Experience with Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC

$285 USD for one or two persons.

Each additional person for a group of three or more is $145 per person. Note: This tour does NOT include lunch. It is a curated educational experience that includes translations and in-depth explanations.

Naturally dyed cotton from San Juan Colorado, Oaxaca

To register, send us an email to Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC Norma Schafer to tell us the dates you prefer. Please give us a choice of two or three dates to reserve your tour.

Reservations and Cancellations

We require payment in full to secure your date. We offer you three (3) ways to pay: 1) Zelle transfer, 2) PayPal, or 3) VENMO. Please tell us which payment method you prefer and the name or phone number associated with your account. When we receive funds, we will send you confirmation and details.

Cancellation Policy: If you cancel five (5) full days or more before your tour, we will refund 50% of your fee via the same method you paid.

We also create customized textile tours of one- to several days in length for collectors, designers, makers, retailers and wholesalers.

Amusgo huipil, woven on the back strap loom

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Posted in Oaxaca Mexico art and culture

Tagged educational tour, Mexico, Oaxaca, textiles, tour, travel, walking tour, weaving

WARP Oaxaca Walking Tour: Textiles and Folk Art

Posted on Sunday, June 18, 2017 | 10 comments

Last Sunday, a group of ten WARP conference participants gathered in the lobby of our hotel at 9:30 a.m. We set out for a day-long walking tour of textiles and folk art, concentrating on a few superb venues to see the best of the best.

Walking around Oaxaca on a Sunday morning.

I had set meetings up in advance with two of Oaxaca’s most distinguished shops where the finest textiles are curated and sold, Arte Amuzgo and Los Baules de Juana Cata.

Efigenia, with exquisite Amuzgo huipil, rare caracol purpura (purple snail) dye

I asked the owners if they would select five to ten of their most outstanding textiles, explain the dye and back-strap weaving process, and talk about the maker and the region of origin.

Rare silk + Egyptian cotton huipil, indigo + caracol purpura dyes, San Mateo del Mar

Both are doing an outstanding effort to rescue lost weaving traditions by encouraging villages to bring back an art form on the edge of extinction.

Baby alpaca translates to traditional Mitla weaving, theme of corn + cacao beans

Both have galleries in the historic center of Oaxaca where they offer a market for indigenous artisans to show and sell their work.

Amazing indigo, native coyuchi cotton and caracol purpura blusa, Amuzgos

They give attribution to the weavers, too, by including their names and villages on the hang tags of the clothing.

On the colonial walking street, Macedonio Alcala, Oaxaca

But, first I thought it was important to offer a backdrop to Oaxaca, by explaining a bit about her history and culture. I invited Janet, who was born and raised here, to tell us about her city.

Gold-leaf interior, Santo Domingo Church, Oaxaca

Our first stop was at the cathedral on the Zocalo, where the story of Colonial Oaxaca begins. We then walked up the Alcala, making a coffee stop, a shopping stop for hand-made paper earrings (on special request from Louise), and gathered in front of Santo Domingo Church.

Like a tapestry, silk and Egyptian cotton huipil

Here, we talked about the conversion of indigenous people, the construction of the city, the power of the Dominicans, and the wealth provided by cochineal.

The underside is as beautiful as the front!

With a stop, too, at Andares del Arte Popular before lunch with a welcome from manager Eric Chavez Santiago, by the time we landed at Los Danzantes, hunger had overtaken us. Lots of walking, but we didn’t even complete 10,000 steps!

Efren at Los Baules de Juana Cata explains dedication to preserving Oaxaca textiles

Organic blue corn tortillas, Los Danzantes, Oaxaca

The aperitif, fresh frozen mango mezcal and agua de tuna

Here, I will not bore you with our seven course tasting menu that I ordered in advance. It included grilled watermelon salad. Coconut shrimp. Rib eye tacos. Wild mushroom lasagna. Let’s go straight to dessert.

Chocolate casacada with house made vanilla ice cream, raspberry drizzle

And, if that wasn’t enough, another taste of my other favorite at Los Danzantes:

Goat cheese flan with toasted, caramelized nuts, honey and chocolate sauce

Oh, and fresh fruit. The figs were out of this world.

I ordered this so we would all stay healthy.

Back into the world of textiles, I want to show you some other beauties that we had the privilege to see this day.

Cochineal dyed silk on Egyptian cotton, embroidered, Ayutla

Irene’s find at Arte Amuzgo

Lollie and Elaine holding down the dressing room fort

Gauze weave cotton by Francisca Palafox, San Mateo del Mar

Getting a closer look

Rare green and coyuchi cotton, native to Oaxaca, Amuzgo

Oaxaca is a vast treasure trove of textile wonderfulness. In the colder mountain regions, the cottons are triple-ply and thick for warmth. Along the coast, the weave is much lighter gauze to cover-up but to also deal with hot, humid weather. Some villages weave. Others work in embroidery.

Close up of Mitla wool rebozo, with traditional corn and cacao pattern

There is a reintroduction of silk weaving, and wool is a perfect wrap around material for rebozos (shawls) to protect from winter chill in the valleys.