Many of you have heard about the famous Ahuiran, Michoacan, feather weaver Cecelia Bautista Caballero, who died in 2022 at the age of 83. I wrote about her in 2019, the last time we visited the village before this year. Ahuiran is a small Purepecha village known for its hand-woven rebozos made on the back-strap loom. Cecelia brought back the pre-Hispanic tradition of weaving feathers into the cloth by tying each one individually into the warp threads. The tradition continues forward with her sister, Mama Albertine Bautista Caballero, and Albertine’s daughter Liliana Pascual Bautista.
We visited here on our last day exploring the villages beyond the town of Patzcuaro and the adjacent lake.
We may offer this trip again in 2026. Contact us to get on the interested list.
After Ahuiran, we continued on to the guitar making town of Paracho where master luthiers craft string instruments from rare woods that are in demand the world over. We visited Jose Alfredo Amezcua Gomez, selected because of his very fine workmanship. His guitars are in demand by musicians throughout the United States, Europe and South America.
Finally, our tour took us to nearby Aranza where backstrap loom weavers create very fine gauze rebozos and shawls known for their airiness and transparency. Here, we met with prize-winners Laura Equihua Ortega and Josefina Equihua, who weave in a style called tejido patakua.
Then, back to our base in Patzcuaro at Casa Encantada where owner Victoria Ryan and general manager Luis Murillo took very good care of us. The gardens are lush, the rooms elegantly furnished, the corridors filled with paintings and local art, and the breakfasts over-the-top delicious.
