The state of
OaxacaOaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
in southern
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
has a noteworthy tradition of finely crafted
textiles, particularly handmade
embroideryEmbroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
and
wovenWeaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
goods that frequently utilize a backstrap
loomA loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...
. Oaxaca is home to several different groups of indigenous peoples, each of which has a distinctive
textileA textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
tradition.
Construction
Oaxacan fibers may be
hand spunSpinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
from
cottonCotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
or locally cultivated
silkSilk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
. Traditional
dyeA dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....
sources include
purpura pansaTyrian purple , also known as royal purple, imperial purple or imperial dye, is a purple-red natural dye, which is extracted from sea snails, and which was possibly first produced by the ancient Phoenicians...
among the
HuaveThe Huave are an indigenous people of Mexico. The autodenomination term used by the Huave themselves is Ikoots/Kunajts , or Mareños . They have inhabited the Isthmus of Tehuantepec for more than 3000 years, preceding the Zapotec people in settling the area...
, Chontal, and Mixtec people. The Chontal and Mazatec also utilize
cochinealThe cochineal is a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the crimson-colour dye carmine is derived. A primarily sessile parasite native to tropical and subtropical South America and Mexico, this insect lives on cacti from the genus Opuntia, feeding on plant moisture and...
to attain bright red tones.
According to Alejandro de Ávila B., founding director of the Ethnobotanical Garden in Oaxaca, the region's biological diversity yields Mexico's greatest variety of fibers and dyes, and "the technical sophistication of Oaxaca's textiles is unparalelled in the country."
Traditional clothing items among the peoples of Oaxaca include the
huipilA huipil is a form of Maya textile and tunic or blouse worn by indigenous Mayan, Zapotec, and other women in central to southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras, in the northern part of Central America. Some are also worn by men, particularly in Guatemala...
, a women's blouse constructed from several panels; the
ceñidor, a type of sash among the Mazatec; and the
pañoPano may refer to:*Panorama*Panoan languages*Panosteitis, a common bone disease in dogs....
, a
ChinantecThe Chinantecs are an indigenous people that live in Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico, especially in the districts of Cuicatlán, Ixtlán de Juárez, Tuxtepec and Choapan.The Chinantec languages belong to the Chinantecan branch of the Oto-Manguean family...
head covering. Handcrafted Oaxacan textiles employ
plainweaveIn embroidery, plainweave is a technical category of woven base fabrics that are suitable for working certain varieties of embroidery. Plainweave fabrics have a tight weave and individual threads are not readily visible...
,
brocadeBrocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in colored silks and with or without gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli," comes from Italian broccato meaning "embossed cloth," originally past participle of the verb broccare...
patterns,
gauzeGauze is a thin, translucent fabric with a loose open weave.-Uses and types:Gauze was originally made of silk and was used for clothing. It is now used for many different things, including gauze sponges for medical purposes. When used as a medical dressing, gauze is generally made of cotton...
weave.
Motifs
Mexican textile expert Irmbard Weitlaner Johnson associates pre-Christian spiritual traditions with the presence of butterflies in Mazatec textile motifs. "To this day the Mazatecs identify the
butterflyA butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
as the soul that leaves the body. They believe that the souls of the deceased have permission to come to this world once a year on All Saints' Day and the
Day of the DeadDay of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in many cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality...
to visit their family. This is the period when butterflies are most abundant in the area and the Mazatecs consider it a sin to kill them."
Regional motifs without specific spiritual meaning, or for which disputed interpretations exist, include a class of stepped fret known as
xicalcoliuhqui, which means "twisted ornament for decorating gourds" in the Nahuatl language; and the double spiral
ilhuitl, whose name translates as "fiesta day." Pre-Colonial tradition associates color with the four cardinal directions: yellow with east, red with north, blue and green with west, and white with south. Another shared motif among the region's indigenous peoples is a rectangular ornament below the neckline of the
huipil. No specific symbolism is known, but it is a frequent theme in pre-colonial
codicesA codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with multiple quires or gatherings typically bound together and given a cover.Developed by the Romans from wooden writing tablets, its gradual replacement...
and surviving historic textiles that remains in popular use.
Other symbolic uses
Traditionally, Oaxacan women wrap a red
faja (a woven
sashA sash is a cloth belt used to hold a robe together, and is usually tied about the waist. The Japanese equivalent of a sash, obi, serves to hold a kimono or yukata together. Decorative sashes may pass from the shoulder to the hip rather than around the waist...
) around their
waistThe waist is the part of the abdomen between the rib cage and hips. On proportionate people, the waist is the narrowest part of the torso....
s as a protection from
evilEvil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
.
External Links
See hand-colored photographs taken by photographer, Luis Marquez, in the 1930's of people in Oaxaca, Mexico.
University of Houston Digital Library