Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Oaxaca: The Weaver's Art Simply Complex
The pre-Hispanic ruins at the Mitla Temple Complex in Oaxaca, Mexico reveal a direct con-
nection to the modern Zapotec weaver's art. Mitla's tall-walled avenue, sculptured in bas-
relief, dwarfs the visitor. Three broad bands of geometric mosaic designs, pieced together in
polished stones, contain the lasting record of encoded knowledge and a glimpse into Zapo-
tec beliefs. Repeating patterns from the past are preserved in the threads woven by modern
artisans whose textiles preserve and celebrate Zapotec beliefs. Ironically, Mitla, Place of the
Dead, is alive in the carpets of the living.
Along the avenue in Mitla, the lower band on the wall is the sacred calendrical lightning
design. The middle shows the greca, the four steps of life: birth, childhood, youth and ma-
turity. Zapotecs believe grecas link all forms of life together. The top band is composed of
stylized geometric caracols (snails) that symbolize the continuation of life.
Figures and symbols, neglected for hundreds of years, relics from destroyed temples, are
features in Oaxacan carpets. Weavers follow tradition without full knowledge of their ori-
gin or significance. Investigators have speculated that patterns, stylized feathers and scales,
birds and snakes, may symbolize the energy of the sky and the shaking of the earth and rep-
resent the duality of the body and spirit interlocked in the pan-Mexican icon Quetzalcoatl,
the Feathered Serpent.
Zenon Hipolito, a master weaver born in 1956 in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, lives with his
family in a modern ranch-styled home. He has three treadle looms in the living room, which
seems a perfect symbolic melding of the modern with the ancient art. To explain the loom,
he showed me a sketch and labeled the parts in combined English, Spanish and Zapotec.
His treasure is a carpet, woven by his father Ponciano, a traditional black-red, two-color
design with a flower center. Zapotec weavers once used only the black-red combination,
but over time, with collectors and tourists, art and use influenced color. Carpets became wall
hangings.
The flower at the center of the treasured carpet symbolizes nourishment. "We honor the
flower because it represents food." The bloom of the calabaza (squash) is a Zapotec favor-
ite. The colors are symbolic. Red represents the sun or day; black the night, but the dicho-
tomy may also extend to male-female, good-evil, vitality-rest. Secret recipes for vegetable
dye colors are passed from generation to generation, and like Napa Valley vintners, one fam-
ily can identify another's work by subtle differences. “We can tell right away.”
