Wefts of Sea and Wind: The Textiles of Francisca Palafox — Textile Museum of Oaxaca Opening

TRAMAS DE MAR Y VIENTO:
LOS TEXTILES DE FRANCISCA PALAFOX
What: Opening
Host: Museo Textil de Oaxaca
Start Time: Saturday, August 22 at 7:00pm
End Time: Saturday, August 22 at 9:00pm
Where: Museo Textil de Oaxaca, Corner Hidalgo & Fiallo, Centro Historico

WEFTS OF SEA AND WIND:

THE TEXTILES OF FRANCISCA PALAFOX

Ikoot women from San Mateo del Mar, a small fishing village on the southern coast of Oaxaca beyond Salina Cruz, have been weaving here on backstrap looms for generations. Today, most women are no longer weavers, and if they are, the quality of process and product they create are generally basic.

Traditional huipiles (blouses) from San Mateo del Mar are finely woven white cotton decorated with supplementary weft designs adapted from beach and sea life.  Turtles, fish, crab, palm trees, shrimp, birds, butterflies, and stars are incorporated into the weaving with purple shellfish dyed thread. The village, however, has adopted the dominant Juchitecas style of dressing, so Ikoot origins are not immediately evident by the traje (local costume).

San Mateo del Mar is a humble, isolated village, dependent upon fishing for mojarras (a type of sea bass) and camarones (shrimp), which is sold in the local street market and exported to the larger, neighboring market towns of Tehuantepec and Juchitán. But mostly, the catch of the day provides food for the family.  There are not many young people.  An aging population implies out-migration to bigger cities for education and job opportunities not offered here.  This is a simple, and by all appearances, difficult life. The village is hammocks, palm thatched huts, tin covered palapas, sand, salt, wind, and intense heat.

Francisca Palafox is one of the last of the great Ikoot backstrap loom artisans. She is 33 years old, the youngest in a family of six children.  She was “discovered” by Remigio Mestas, who searches for master weavers in remote villages and encourages them to preserve their craft. Remigio provides raw materials such as cotton or thread of the highest quality and through old photographs or antique samples, both Remigio and the weaver re-discover and rescue ancient techniques. As a single mother, Francisca first worked selling dinner to the people of her village to support her children, finding time to weave only during the day. Over the past seven years, because of the commissions from Remigio, Francisca has been able to dedicate her time entirely to weaving.

Antonina Herrán Roldán, Francisca’s mother, now age 73, taught her daughters how to weave.  However, it was eldest daughter Elvira, who stepped in to mentor and guide her youngest sister, eight year old Francisca, teaching her to weave after school. Due to economic hardships, her parents had no choice but to take Francisca out of school, and so she began to weave full time. Francisca wove napkins with imaginative designs and successfully sold them.  By age 15, she had won several prizes that distinguished her among the group of local women weavers.

A woman in San Mateo del Mar taught Francisca how to weave the traditional figures into the Ikoot huipil. Soon, Francisca followed her own independent imagination and creativity, incorporating her personal aesthetic into the Ikoot pieces. In addition to the traditional figures, she learned to weave dancers, fishermen, and sailboats.

“I remember seeing an owl in one of my books in fourth or fifth grade and I got the idea to put it into the loom. When one is younger, the imagination is vast and untiring. Youth is so precious,” she says.

Eventually Francisca learned to weave an entire huipil on her own. Knowing that education was a missing piece in her life, after giving birth to her first child, she went back to finish the rest of her studies.

Francisca’s children, a son Noe, age 15, and two daughters, Jazmín, age 13, and Liliana, age 11, learned to weave when they were also eight years old. Lili, for example, helps coat the warp threads of the backstrap loom with atole (a corn drink) to make them stronger. Although Francisca´s children have a vast understanding of the Ikoot weaving tradition and a profound admiration for their mother, they also believe that in years to come it will become more and more difficult to find a sustainable living in weaving. Her son Noe says: “It’s as if my mother helped to preserve our traditions…thread by thread…” Francisca´s sister, Teófila Palafox, as well as their cousin Sabina, are also active weavers.

Francisca is well aware of the danger her community faces. Her daughters as well as other girls in the village no longer want to wear huipiles because they see it as attire incompatible with modernity. Whenever they do wear huipiles, the choice is the red, yellow and black huipil that the women from Juchitan wear.

In an attempt to share her knowledge, Francisca has invited women of the village to weave with her. But soon after realizing the arduous and time-consuming work it is (and without much economic return) they prefer jobs with regular pay that are not as tedious.  “Women come and see, but they don’t like this job.  They prefer looking for something else like selling tortillas…” Francisca explains.

Francisca is one of a few women in her community who continue to weave.  This small group of Ikoot is at risk of being absorbed into the larger culture and of losing their craft. And this is part of what makes Francisca’s work so important. The Textile Museum of Oaxaca pays homage to Francisca Palafox, whose work carries a whole set of cultural symbols, history and knowledge valuable to her village but also to the world at large. Francisca is one of the last caretakers of the Ikoot tradition. More than this, she is also an inspirational, courageous, self-taught, and self-sacrificing woman devoted to her unconditional companion, her backstrap loom.

“The loom is mine, and no one can take it from me…”

Francisca Palafox

Textile Museum of Oaxaca

Written in collaboration with Apolonia Torres and Norma Hawthorne

Translated by: Apolonia Torres

Edited by: Norma Hawthorne