Category Archives: Oaxaca Mexico art and culture

It’s a miracle for me to visit Amalia and her family of weavers in a remote area of Coban, which is seven hours by van from Antigua. I first met Amalia years ago at an expoventa for the Textile Museum in Oaxaca. I immediately made plans to see her again at the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe. Our friend and guide Olga Reiche first encouraged her to apply and helped her get accepted.

What is pikbil? It is the finest weaving in Guatemala and perhaps the finest in the world. They use 20/1 ,finest 100% cotton thread available only found in Guatemala. A higher number on top indicates that this is fine one-ply thread. The weft threads are only softly beaten down on the warp creating a fine gauze fabric that is easy to wear in this tropical rain forest where orchids and coffee are grown. also finest quality will be a four-selvage textile — there is no hem. This is only achieved by a master weaver.

BTW the coffee here is the most delicious.

It takes one to two months to weave a pikbil blusa (blouse) and three months to weave a dress length garment. The attention to detail is amazing. One innovation is that Amalia is teaching the young men in her family to weave and they start at age seven, unraveling the plastic material from coffee bags to practice until they become proficient.

Teaching boys and girls to weave is important for their production and to keep up with special orders. Traditionally, men are farmers not weavers. They work the coffee fields. Originally, Germans came here in the 1800’s to start coffee plantations. Much of the land was later given to indigenous Quiche people to continue growing coffee.

There are sixty eight people in the Ixbalanke cooperative. It means Women of the Moon. They are now using colored warp and weft threads, but the tradition is white on white. The designs are pre-Hispanic, ancient, in fact.

There are new colors but the designs are very old. 

These communities were flooded 2020 by storms. Now they are restored and growing coffee and cardamom. Pine trees provide lumber.

The tradition is weaving by women. The men feel that they want to be part of and represent the culture. They have work and orders. How do the women feel about men weaving? They say that having men weave is important. Men can weave on a wider loom and longer. Men weave a little faster. So this work is very important. Everyone weaves between doing other activities. Women cook and care for the family. Men work the fields.

We are on a cultural expedition to learn about how people live and sustain themselves. There was a 30-year war here in indigenous communities perpetrated by the CIA to protect the United Fruit Company. And propped up a repressive right wing government. Many were killed and disappeared, including the fathers and brothers of women we met. Maya people fled to Chiapas and into the mountains to survive. There are residuals now and the suffering was huge.

if you want to come with us in 2026, please send an email expressing your interest.

if you want to come with us in 2026, please send an email expressing your interest.

Well, what’s to say but nothing less than spectacular, a treasure trove of textiles, art, vintage jewelry, and a cultural immersion experience. THIS is the famed Chichicastenango market, a warren of stalls almost as complex as the souk in Marrakech.

It took about three hours to get there from Antigua, not much compared to the five hours more to Coban, where we are now and on our way to visit famed pikbil weaver Amalia Gue.

If you would like to come with us in 2026, please send an email to get on the interested list.

For now, photos:

We are doing a walking tour with Olga and I’m straggling because of the treacherous ancient cobblestones on the streets, using my two hiking poles for balance. An indigenous woman and her sister come up from behind. She greets me in English: Hello, and welcome to Guatemala. I ask her how she learned such perfect English. She says she is a professor of linguistics at Tulane University. She hosts students in her village of Santa Maria Jesus near the volcano for six weeks each summer. They come to learn Maya. They are carrying two bundles. Eric asks if she has textiles in the bundles. No, she says, but she is part of a cooperative. I ask her is she would like to come to our hotel at five o’clock for an expoventa. Yes! She says. This is what we found when she arrived. A treasure trove of huipiles from various communities. Plus she explained the meaning of the cloth designs, and talked about the difficulties for women and girls in the culture.

Here are photos for you to enjoy. And if you want to come with us to Guatemala in 2026, send me an email.

Zona 1 is about a twenty minute taxi ride from the more upscale Zona 10 where we are staying at the Hyatt Centric, which has been very accommodating. (I’m still trying to figure out the conversion rate for USD.) I’m traveling with Carol Estes and Mike Schroeder who are on our tour that starts tonight in Antigua. We came three days early to explore this city, which is magnificent.

The Guatemala Cathedral and the Central Market, two blocks away, were our destinations. Not as impressive as Templo Santo Domingo in Oaxaca, the Cathedral nevertheless demonstrates the power of the Conquest, massive and containing images of European saints.

The market is a vast, packed, dense warren of aisles packed with food stalls, comedors, and artisan craft and textiles from around the country.

We may return to Guatemala in 2026 IF there are enough people interesting in traveling with us here. Please send an email to express your interest.

After our meander, we had lunch at El Adobe, a delicious and traditional restaurant three blocks from the Cathedral. The day before, we ate at their sister restaurant in Zona 10. We had no trouble going back since the food was so delicious and reasonably priced.