HOW ARE ZAPOTEC TEXTILES MADE?

A truly informed understanding of Zapotec textile production begins with a knowledge of its history (and pre-history).  According to local legend, the Zapotec (Ben'i rini dich za'a in the Zapotec language) wandered into the Valley of Oaxaca long ago following a constellation of stars which pointed to a rock outcrop.  Modern day Teotitlán lies directly below this rocky crag which the inhabitants of Teotitlán still refer to as "brother rock."  Recall that the name of Teotitlán in Zapotec (Xagui'a) means "at the foot of the rock."

Archaeologists believe that this area of the Valley of Oaxaca was settled more than 2500 years ago; however, the archaeological record doesn't tell us very much about pre-Hispanic textile production.  Fragments of a cotton textile were found by archaeologists excavating in a cave near Mitla and ceramic spindle whorls are present in the archaeological record, but little else remains.  In short, except that cotton was spun into yarn using the drop spindle technique (a technique common to Native American groups throughout the Americas), we know very little about how textiles were made during this period. Consequently, claims that the techniques of Zapotec textile production have changed little over the centuries simply cannot be substantiated (in the photo to the right is a road sign marking the entrance to Teotitlán).

Our first concrete and reliable information about Zapotec textile production comes from the period of the Spanish conquest.  The Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Valley of Oaxaca in the early 1520s and Aztec tribute lists from just prior to their arrival indicate that the area around Teotitlán, Santa Ana, and San Miguel supplied large quantities of cotton textiles to the Aztec Empire as tribute.  It was common for the Aztec to take tribute in products locally produced and as a consequence it seems highly likely that the towns in the Valley of Oaxaca near Teotitlán were involved in textile production.  Paying tribute in the form of cotton textiles, however, was quite common in pre-Hispanic Mexico and therefore, this area was not unusual in this respect.

Because the local environment is not suited to growing cotton, the Zapotec of Teotitlán and other nearby villages probably bartered for raw cotton brought to market in the Oaxaca Valley from coastal regions (such as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec).  Just as during the pre-Hispanic period they did not cultivate cotton, today Zapotec weavers do not own large numbers of sheep. Contrary to popular conception and following a centuries' old tradition (of bartering for cotton at market), for at least the last 400 years Zapotec weavers have bartered for or purchased wool and sometimes yarn rather than raising their own sheep and spinning yarn themselves.  While as recently as 30 years ago they did purchase raw wool in the markets at Tlacolula, Ocotlan, and Oaxaca City and spin it into yarn themselves (and still do from time to time), they have also long bought wool spun in other communities at the same markets.  In fact, Chichicapa, a small village hidden away in the mountains between Ocotlan and Tlacolula, has long been a producer of fine woolen yarns, which today are still sold at Sunday market in Tlacolula and at Friday market in Ocotlan. The current practice of purchasing woolen yarn is therefore not a degenerate, inauthentic practice (in the photo to the left, recently washed wool is hung out to dry on a roof top).  It is a practice that has developed more recently but which has its origin in pre-Hispanic patterns of exchange and textile production.  That the Zapotec do not spin the majority of the yarn they use is therefore not something to be hidden from prospective textile buyers but something to be celebrated and understood in its proper context-- as a centuries' old tradition of exchange of goods in open air markets. 

From descriptions of the valley environs and its peoples written by the Spanish during the 1580s, we also know that Teotitlán and Brother Rock were 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 looms and the knowledge and skills necessary for using them were introduced by the Spanish 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 teaching 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 (in the photo to the right, the young man who first told me this story at work on one of his family's looms).

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, Díaz Ordaz, (see map) were sold throughout Southern Mexico.  Merchants and long distance traders from Teotitlán, for example, transported the textiles by muleteer (there are displays describing the work of these men and the routes they traveled in Teotitlán's textile museum).  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 as well.  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.  The stereotypical image of "authentic" Zapotec textile production and marketing that exists in the popular literature (travel accounts, tour guides, other web sites, and guides to purchasing Mexican handicrafts) are inaccurate.  These sources suggest that purchasing a Zapotec textile directly from the person who wove it is the most "authentic buying experience." Unfortunately, this notion is a product of our own imagination and not historical reality-- it fits our romantic image of the lone craftsman but not the history and pre-history of Zapotec textile production. In short, for at least as long as Teotitlán has been Teotitlán (that is since it was subsumed into the Aztec empire and given the Nahuatl name of "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 (from Teotitlán and Santa Ana) have stalls in most of the market towns in the Oaxaca Valley; store fronts in Teotitlán, Santa Ana, and Oaxaca City-- even as far away as Tijuana.  Most recently, some have even developed Internet sites where one can browse and purchase a Zapotec textile online (to the left is a photo of the textile market in Teotitlán).  Buying a textile in any one of these places (including Internet sites), as long as one buys from a Zapotec merchant or trader, is the truly "authentic" buying experience.

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 (and Santa Ana & San Miguel) Zapotec textiles are made in many family workshops that are interconnected through a large system of subcontracting between different families and villages (to the right, a photo of a merchant's workshop filled with many looms).  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 re-sold wool and yarn they purchased in their travels to weavers.  Building upon this pattern, today wool is trucked into Teotitlán and Santa Ana from as far away as the Mexican State of Puebla. Once cleaned and spun into yarn (frequently in Teotitlán's yarn factory), it is either purchased by weavers or distributed to them in Teotitlán, Santa Ana, San Miguel.

From this perspective, something as seemingly out of place as Zapotec weavers purchasing yarn from a wool processing plant supplied with raw wool trucked in from Puebla is in fact a perfectly natural outgrowth of the historical development of Zapotec textile production. The only aspect of textile production truly out of place today are the gallery owners and wholesalers from the US (mostly the Southwestern US and especially the Santa Fe and Taos area) who dictate to Zapotec weavers what they should be weaving.  It is through the influence of these men and women that the Zapotec have begun to reproduce Navajo designs (to the left is a photo of  young Zapotec weavers reproducing Navajo textiles for a client from the U.S.-- note the book and color photo laying open on the loom).  They bring down photos of Navajo textiles and swatches of color and then tell Zapotec weavers how many textiles to make, from which photo, and using which colors.  Even more appalling, and perhaps just a little bit ironic, is the fact that they are the same people (many of whom have Internet sites where they sell Zapotec textiles) who have informed many of the most common misconceptions about Zapotec textiles.  They are the ones who have most promoted our stereotypical image of the lone Zapotec weaver making textiles, from start to finish, with their family, in the privacy of their family workshops using centuries old techniques, dyes, and designs.  In truth, however, they may be at least partially responsible for many of the recent changes in Zapotec textile production they seek to obscure.