Mexican Zapotec rugs, blankets and weaving history - page 2 of 3

From descriptions of the valley surroundings and its peoples written by the Spanish during the 1580s, we also know that Teotitlán and Brother Rock was an important pilgrimage site where local indigenous priests made sacrifices; however, this early source does not mention textile production. On the other hand, many in Teotitlán, Santa Ana, and San Miguel take great pride in describing how the Spanish introduced the looms and the knowledge and skills necessary for using them in the mid-16th century. Local story has it that Bishop López de Zarate, the first Bishop of Oaxaca, introduced the Spanish style treadle loom, an upright European loom developed in the 13th Century, to the inhabitants of Teotitlán; and taught them how to card, spin, dye, and weave using the Spanish style looms. Such is the oral history surrounding the origin of woolen textile production in Teotitlán.

Better knowledge of Zapotec textile production comes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We know that during this period Zapotec textiles from Teotitlán, Santa Ana, and another nearby community, Diaz Ordaz, were sold throughout southern Mexico. Merchants and long distance traders from Teotitlán, for example, transported the textiles by muleteer. They purchased textiles from weavers who gathered in front of Teotitlán's municipal building and then took the textiles not only to market in nearby towns, but also far up into the mountains of the Sierra and down to the coast and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. An understanding of these historical features of textile production in Teotitlán, Santa Ana, and San Miguel enables a clearer picture of how Zapotec textile production and marketing today developed from a rich history.

One can clearly see, for example, that contrary to popular conception; Zapotec textiles may never have been purchased directly from those who weave them. For at least as long as Teotitlán has been Teotitlán, the Zapotec textiles made there have most typically been taken to market and bartered with or sold by merchants and long distance traders from below ‘Brother Rock’. It follows that, in spite of our desire to meet with and get to know the artisans who make Zapotec textiles, the most authentic buying experience would be to purchase a textile from a merchant or trader from a Zapotec community. Today many merchants from Teotitlán and Santa Ana have stalls in most of the market towns in the Oaxaca Valley; and store fronts in Teotitlán, Santa Ana, and Oaxaca City, even as far away as Tijuana.

Given the multiple hands through which Zapotec textiles and the wool used to make them pass, it should come as no surprise that popular conceptions of single families and craftsmen producing textiles in their household workshops are also less than accurate. In truth, today in Teotitlán, Santa Ana and San Miguel, Zapotec textiles are made in many family workshops that are interconnected through a large system of subcontracting between different families and villages. Most typically, the same merchants and long distance traders from Teotitlán and Santa Ana who sell the textiles on many occasions, also provide dyed yarn and a design to weavers who make the textiles in their own homes. Weavers are then contractually obligated to sell the textile back to the merchant at an agreed upon price. This arrangement developed historically from the pattern described above, where merchants and traders returned from selling textiles in the Sierra and Isthmus with their muleteers loaded down with wool, yarn, and other products from that region. Merchants and traders then typically resold wool and yarn they purchased in their travels to weavers.

• Mexican rugs, Zapotec rugs
• Mexican Zapotec history
• Monte Albán
• Mexican Zapotec weaving

Zapotec Mexican rugs blankets weaving history - page 3

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