There are both vast differences between Navajo and Zapotec textiles and great similarities.  Complicating this situation is the fact there are different reasons for these similarities and differences.  Both are weft faced woolen tapestry weave textiles but they are made on different looms.  Both are "hand made" by Native American people (by definition, people indigenous to the Western Hemisphere) but most Zapotec weavers live in rural communities in Southern Mexico and most Navajo weavers live in the American Southwest.   Both have traditionally woven designs that feature geometric elements but the Zapotec are now also paid by U.S. based businesses to reproduce Navajo textile patterns.

Some Zapotec textiles with geometric patterns, for example, look like Navajo textiles because of pre-Hispanic contacts between what is now the American Southwest and Central Mexico.  Also, the American Southwest was part of Mexico in the not too distant past.  In Colonial Mexico, textiles from Southern, Central, and Northern "New Spain" (as the area was then called) were bought and sold by itinerant merchants traveling up and down what was called the "Camino Real"-- the colony's main commercial trade route.  As a consequence, a textile made in Central New Spain (around Mexico City for example) might end up as a cherished possession of someone living on New Spain's northern frontier (around what is today Santa Fe, New Mexico).  In the end, weavers from one part of New Spain would be familiar with design elements and overall patterns from other parts of the colony and would have been free to borrow such design elements for their own textiles.

The textiles to the right look quite similar but one is a Zapotec textile and the other one is a Navajo textile.  Can you tell which is which? (check your answer)  They look very much alike not because one is a Zapotec copy of a Navajo textile, but because of historical and pre-historical linkages between the American Southwest and Mexico.  Some design elements common to both textiles have precedent in the design motifs of pre-Hispanic cultures.  For example, what are often called "step-fret" geometric patterns (see textiles below as well) were common pre-Hispanic design elements throughout Mexico, Guatemala, and the Southwestern U.S.  Additionally, the diamond-like motif in the textiles to the right ( a "palmas" design in Spanish) was common in textiles throughout the American Southwest and Mexico when the entire area was a part of the Spanish colonial empire.  Resulting similarities between Navajo textiles and Zapotec textiles, then, are not always the result of the Zapotec reproducing Navajo textiles but of commonalities and overlap between what, today, we think of as distinct textile traditions.

Other Zapotec textiles look a great deal like Navajo textiles because the Zapotec weaver may have been under contract to reproduce a Navajo textile's overall design for a business (such as a gallery) in the Southwestern United States.  Zapotec weavers began reproducing Navajo textile patterns under these circumstances in the 1980s working directly from images of Navajo textiles supplied to them.  Today, nearly 20 years later, most merchants in Teotitlán and Santa Ana keep a stock of "Navajo looking" textiles for sale to business owners and the general public. 

The textiles to the left look nearly identical-- one is a Zapotec reproduction and the other the Navajo original.  Can you tell which is which? (check your answer)  I purchased the Zapotec reproduction in 1992 from a Zapotec weaver who works with gallery, gift shop, and wholesale business owners from the American Southwest and California.  The original Navajo textile has been in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's Ethnology Collection for quite some time.  It was donated to the Museum in 1942 by William Randolph Hearst and was part of his personal collection before that (his records indicate that it was purchased in 1929).  Nancy Bloomberg (a former curator at the Museum) published a book about the collection in 1988 which included a color photo of the textile.  The Zapotec weaver used that color photo (which had been supplied by a Santa Fe galllery owner) to reproduce the design literally putting it on the loom in plain sight while he worked.  Today, both textiles are in the Museum's Ethnology Collection.
 
 

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Helpful Hints for Distinguishing between Navajo Textiles & Zapotec Reproductions of Navajo Textiles

There are basically two ways that most Zapotec textiles can be distinguished from Navajo textiles:  1) there are structural differences because Zapotec textiles are hand made on a different kind of loom; and 2) there are overall differences in pattern and weaving technique because those who contract the Zapotec to reproduce Navajo textiles don't pay them well enough to copy exactly the very intricate designs of the Navajo.  Instead, they reproduce a simplified version of the design, changing or leaving out elements that are highly labor intensive and using weaving techniques that are not so time consuming.

Overall Pattern Differences (in the photos to the right you can see the following differences): 

"outlining" of design elements is absent in the Zapotec textile-- outlining a design element is very labor intensive for the weaver so the Zapotec often simplify designs by not outlining (note also that this design element is woven with different colors);   the Zapotec textile's weft joints are "doubled" for speed of weaving (note that this is a structural difference as well)-- doubling the weft at joints where two weft threads of different colors meet is another way of weaving more quickly but lines look rougher or more "jagged".

Structural differences (in the photos to the left you can see the following differences):

"corded selvage" on the Zapotec textile's edge-- Zapotec weavers twist several (usually 6-10) warp threads together forming a thicker, more durable edge in the finished textile and speeding the weaving process by making it easier to maintain a straight selvage;   "fringe" on top and bottom of the Zapotec textile-- fringe made from twisting or knoting 4-6 warp threads together is common to weft faced tapestry weavings in general but the Navajo do not do this.