Empowering Threads

Weavers keep sample textiles known as muestras as a reference to symbols and designs. Muestras vary in size and shape and may be passed down through generations. More extensive muestrario textiles are sometimes woven to document an entire range of design. Magdalena López López, a master artisan from the village of Bayalemó in San Andrés Larráinzar, has woven a series of long and exquisite muestrario textiles. The first was completed in 2000 with her sister, María López López, following inspirational dreams by both women. Titled Sueño del Manto de la Virgen, it contained many of the traditional symbols and new designs Magdalena and María López were capable of creating. The muestrario on display in this exhibit was woven and embroidered as an updated, visual catalog by Magdalena López López from 2014–16. This larger tapestry contains more than 134 bands of pattern, from newly envisioned symbols to contemporary designs and ancient Mayan symbols from antiquity. 

Women from Chiapas have woven on backstrap looms for centuries. The backstrap loom is a simple device capable of producing exquisite textiles in the hands of a skilled weaver. These portable looms are easily installed in the home, either outside or indoors, allowing the weaver to tend to other duties and relocate when needed. With one end anchored to a tree or post and the other connected by a backstrap around the weaver’s waist, long warp threads are suspended between two wooden end-posts and a series of rods. Weft thread is woven horizontally between the long warp threads, with alternating, multicolored thread added when weaving designs in brocade. Leaning forward or backward controls tension of the loom, and a wooden sword sets each line of weaving. 

Located north of San Cristóbal de Las Casas in Los Altos de Chiapas, San Andrés Larráinzar is home to a vibrant community of weavers. For centuries, Tzotzil-speaking women in San Andrés have woven huipiles on backstrap looms in a similar manner to their ancestors of the Classic Maya Period (300–900CE). The art of Mayan backstrap weaving and its associated symbols and designs are traditionally passed down through generations of women in Chiapas. This transfer of knowledge does not always occur from mother to daughter. Some artisans, including Magdalena López López, learned their craft from grandmothers and other women in their community. Like many weavers, she keeps small muestra weaving samples to reference designs and symbols. 

In the past the weaving process was very arduous. My grandmother told me that they used cotton; they didn’t buy yarn as we do now; they had to prepare everything. I don’t know where they got it; only that they had a place where they prepared the cotton and then they wove the blouses and the men’s clothing. We no longer have to do all that. Now we buy the thread in the stores; it is ready to use and we only have to make balls and can weave it quickly. We cannot compare the work of our grandmothers with the work we do today. Life has changed, but I don't know if it has improved or worsened.”

—Magdalena López López
Weaver, Jolom Mayaetik
Weaving Chiapas: Maya Women’s Lives in a Changing World

Traditional Mayan women’s attire worn throughout Los Altos de Chiapas includes a decorated, flat-sewn blouse and a long skirt cinched with a sash, often made by the wearer or another local weaver. Styles of dress and decoration vary by community and identify the unique and culturally distinct populations of Los Altos. In the eastern highlands, Tzeltal-speaking women of Oxchuc wear handwoven blouses with wide, alternating stripes, and embroidered ray designs around the neck. Tzotzil women in northern Pantelhó are identified by blouses of narrow, intricately woven stripes accentuated with columns of embroidered or woven symbols. To the west, San Andrés women wear blouses with extensive decoration at the neck and sleeves. Their traditional huipiles feature designs in brocade and embroidery on a white, woven background, while the more recent blusa Maya style exhibits bold, bright colors made possible by modern thread.    

Ceremonial huipiles are among the most elaborate Mayan textiles. The finest garments are woven for the saints of fiestas and include extensive brocade and embroidery. Ceremonial textile weaving often fulfills sociocultural roles performed outside of the household known as cargos. These important roles include positions as shamans, midwives, leaders of cooperatives or fiestas, and weavers of sacred garments. Ceremonial weaving is a major undertaking, requiring months of dedicated work and financial resources that are rarely available. In addition to the thread and materials needed, expenses are incurred on the journey from the weaver’s village to the church if there is a formal procession. Religious festivities are financed by the weaver’s family, with food, beverage, incense, and fireworks purchased as necessary to properly offer a saint their new garment. Ceremonial textiles are also made to wear on special occasions, represented by this ceremonial huipil from the town of Magdalenas in Aldama, north of San Andrés. 

The universe is central to Mayan mythology and often appears symbolically in traditional weaving. Illustrated by a diamond motif sometimes referred to as the “Grand Design,” its four sides represent the boundaries of space and time. Smaller diamonds at the points of the symbol mark cardinal directions, with curl motifs that extend from the central diamond to recreate movement of the sun across the sky. Implemented in rows, the universe design shows the continuation of time through its repetition. The toad, or sapo, is another important and commonly interpreted symbol in Mayan weaving. Its design has roots in the ancient architecture of Bonampak, where it decorates the huipiles of queen K'ab'al Xook. The sapo symbolizes fertility and life in Mayan culture and comes to life at the start of each rainy season, when fields planted with new crops are filled with toads mating and singing in the rain, calling for another successful harvest.

Art found in ancient sites throughout the Chiapas highlands preserves images of early attire and the oldest symbols utilized in contemporary Mayan weaving. A stone carving from a lintel at the Bonampak temple complex shows one of the most common ancient designs, known today as the cruz or feathered cross. The symbol decorates a long and elaborate huipil worn by Lady K'ab'al Xook, queen of Yaxchilán, who is performing a bloodletting ritual with her husband, Shield Jaguar II in the year 709CE. Glyphs on the lintel identify dates along with the king and queen, yet do not give a name or interpretation of the cruz symbol. While the true meaning of the feathered cross is lost to time, its design survives in weaving as a representation of Mayan antiquity. 

On the northern edge of Los Altos is the municipality of Pantelhó. Like much of the highlands, it is an agrarian region of communal ejido farms and private ranches that produce coffee, corn, and cattle. With cities and villages situated in the valleys of tropical, mountainous terrain, Pantelhó is also home to communities of Tzotzil-speaking Mayan artisans who weave distinctive, backstrap-loomed textiles. Their traditional huipil design features narrow, alternating stripes of red and white, decorated by multicolored bands of embroidery around the neckline and embroidered chevrons at the sleeves. Toads, stars, and other symbols are either woven or embroidered onto the stripes in vertical columns. Weavers of contemporary Pantelhó blusas incorporate vibrant pinks, greens, purples, and other colors made possible by modern threads, creating some of the most distinctive textiles in Chiapas. 

“To be an artisan, to be a weaver signifies tradition, the culture. We wear our dress. I never have taken it off.…In many municipalities, they no longer wear their dress or know how it was. If it is lost, the tradition is not known anymore…It is very important to learn to weave because it signifies not losing our culture. Because if we do not do our weaving, the culture is lost.”

—Celia Sántiz Ruíz
Past President, Jolom Mayaetik 

Oxchuc is both a city and larger municipality, located to the east of San Andrés in Los Altos de Chiapas. The indigenous Mayan citizens of Oxchuc speak Tzeltal, a close linguistic cousin to the Mayan dialect spoken by their Tzotzil neighbors. Artisans from San Andrés and Oxchuc also share a rich history in textile weaving on the backstrap loom. Traditional women’s huipiles from Oxchuc feature alternating red or purple and white woven stripes with multicolored rays embroidered around the neckline and blocks of contrasting color below. Contemporary huipil design in Oxchuc includes more complex embroidery, with additional detail added to vertical woven stripes and around the sleeves. More experimental, modern blusas substitute traditional, white backgrounds for base colors in bright reds and purple hues.  

Autonomous craft organizations provide artisans with a market for their goods and offer strength in numbers to their collective membership. In Chiapas, the more progressive weaving cooperatives also promote solidarity by creating a space for members of different communities to socialize and discuss current problems and issues. In 1996, the founding members of Jolom Mayaetik fought to form their new cooperative for pressing reasons, including declining wages, rising costs of living, and mismanagement of government-run cooperatives they previously worked for. Frustrated with exclusion from local government and marginal political representation outside of their communities, Jolom weavers also sought sociopolitical empowerment. Today, Jolom Mayaetik holds educational courses, lobbies for political inclusion, and lectures locally and internationally to promote the rights of women and indigenous people in Mexico.