WHAT ARE ZAPOTEC TEXTILES?

Zapotec textiles are woolen, weft faced tapestry weavings made by Native Americans from the state of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico.  The terminology "weft faced tapestry" weaving is a technical way of describing the structure of the textiles that they make.  It describes a "woven" fabric ( a fabric made by interlacing two distinct sets of threads-- the "warp" and "weft") where the weft threads form the surface of the textile and the textile's design is created by introducing differently colored weft threads.  That's the technical description of what a Zapotec textiles is.  A technical description, however, falls well short of describing what a Zapotec textile is for those who make them and for those who both admire and purchase them.  Zapotec textiles are both an economic livelihood and a means of self-expression for Zapotec weavers.  For someone who buys one while vacationing in Southern Mexico, a Zapotec textile maybe a souvenir that serves to remind them of their vacation, while for the collector, Zapotec textiles may represent a distinct way of life and offer a glimpse into the culture of a seemingly "exotic" people.  I have learned that Zapotec textiles are all of these things, and much more, through several research projects I have undertaken that focus on how the Zapotec learn to weave, the historical changes in the organization of textile production, and the influence tourism and export markets have on the lives of Zapotec weavers and their textiles. 

As a part of this research, I went to Mexico and lived in Teotitlán del Valle for two years.  I learned to weave and I worked in household workshops as a weaver there in addition to doing extensive interviews with weavers of all ages about how they learned to weave, what their working history was, etc. (to the right is a photo of me weaving in Oaxaca).  In the process I learned a great deal about not only how Zapotec textiles are made but also how our desire to purchase, own, and display them in our homes is, in a very real sense, manufactured as well.

I began to see Zapotec textiles as things that have been created both materially and symbolically by a vast array of actors many of whom live and work quite a distance from Teotitlán del Valle, Mexico.  On the symbolic side for example, the pride that the Mexican nation takes in its indigenous cultures and in the craft items that they produce is a fairly recent development.  In fact, one finds very little written by Mexicans (or anyone else) concerning the beauty of indigenous handicrafts before the Mexican Revolution when a number of the leading intellectuals in Mexico began to incorporate both Mexico's indigenous peoples and its pre-Hispanic past into a sense of national identity.  These are well-documented historical facts, and a number of both Mexican and US scholars have written extensively about the historical, political, economic, and cultural forces that were a part of this very dramatic and dynamic shift.  Similarly, I began to understand how our desire to own and decorate our homes with "things Native American" was a relatively recent phenomenon (this is also a well-documented historical fact).  Our desire to own Zapotec textiles and display them in our homes must be understood from this perspective -- a perspective from which the beauty we see in them and our resultant desire to possess them are understood to be as much the product of our own history as the history of the Zapotec.

Does this mean that Native Americans from Mexico don't produce beautiful things?  The answer is, No!  What it means is that the way that we have constructed their value is only one of a multitude of possibilities.  You may be wondering why one ought to bother to think about such things or even consider such issues. My answer is that it's important because if we think of Zapotec weavers as the living remnants of pre-Hispanic cultures of Mexico, for example, we limit what we will accept as being a legitimate artifact of their culture.  That limits which production techniques we will accept as "authentic" and consequently it impacts what Zapotec weavers can weave and sell to us (in the photo to the left a woman attaches warp thread to a loom in Teotitlán).  It is a perspective from which, in a very real sense, we tell the Zapotec what their culture is.  I find this to be an unacceptable position-- it ought to be up to the Zapotec.

Also, in spite of what most of those who write about or sell Zapotec textiles say, the Zapotec do respond to the market for their textiles. Just in the past 13 years that I have been studying the Zapotec, for example, the shades of color employed in their weavings have changed dramatically (in the photo below are two Zapotec textiles one made in 1988 and another in 1994).  To put it quite succinctly, the Zapotec have not been producing "traditional" unchanging designs through the same techniques for centuries as you will find written elsewhere on the web (see my discussion "How are Zapotec Textiles Made?" for an unbiased account).  Does this mean that the Zapotec should be forced to weave only designs that we think are traditional and that they are pulling one over on us when they don't? Again the answer is, No!  But many of those who sell Zapotec rugs on the Web (and in stores and galleries throughout the US) are trying to!

Instead of educating the public about how Zapotec textiles are really made, most of those who sell Zapotec textiles have chosen to try to hide those aspects of Zapotec culture and textile manufacture that don't fit our image of the Native American way of life. The problem is not with Zapotec weavers, the problem is with our images of them (which aren't very accurate) and with those who sell Zapotec textiles in the US and on the Web.  These are by-and-large business men and women who, although given the opportunity to educate the public about Zapotec life, have dropped the ball and chosen the easy way out.  Basically, they have simply tried to hide those aspects of Zapotec textile production that we, through our own ignorance, believe to be "inauthentic," and simply catered to the status quo in order to sell textiles.

Does all this mean that Zapotec textiles aren’t worth collecting?  The answer is, once again, No! They are beautiful and well made and no doubt they would be even better made and more beautiful if we left it up to Zapotec weavers to decide what a Zapotec textile is.