A WEAVING TOWN RECOVERING ITS ANCIENT WAYS OF EXTRACTING NATURAL DYES
Below the rock rests a Zapotec village that continues its work in the shadow of its old village people. Teotitlan del Valle, famed for its skill of weaving, lies at the foothills of Sierra Madre de Oaxaca [wa-ha-ka] a mountain range in southern Mexico. It proudly retains all its ancient Zapotec customs today in food, language, dance, ceremonies and arts.
Up until mid-20th century the towns weavers evolved its techniques of weaving fibre into using a new material of wool being introduced to them from the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century. After 2nd world war, the region opened by road then soon after by air their once local market quickly became a world market.
With their new found economic success, production was in high demand for its famous vibrant coloured rugs. The town quickly favoured a more modern method of chemical dyeing for the ease of use and cost. Subsequently enough, the weavers nearly lost their ancient knowledge of natural dyeing.
The more pressing issue now is that the chemicals are polluting the eco system along with ongoing health issues suffered by the artisans by inhaling the vapours and from absorption through their skin while working with the chemical dyes. The colours achieved from nature are almost identical to the vibrancy attained from synthetics and unfortunately within the village some weavers are selling off to the world their weaves they claim to be of natural dye but in fact are dyed with such harmful chemicals.
Porfirio Gutierrez, a young man with a strong passion for his heritage returned to his village after spending 10 years abroad in the United States of America. With great dedication, he advocates the use of natural dyes rather than synthetic. Acting gracefully today as his towns cultural ambassador, he aims to educate the world along with the young weavers of his town, the ancient ways of extracting natural dyes.
He is not only internationally recognised as a cultural ambassador and educator, but is himself a master weaver incorporating Zapotec symbolisms with modern designs giving great respect to his culture. His art has been displayed in art exhibitions around the world while promoting the use of natural dyes, bringing alongside him into the spotlight his sister Juana.
Juana has spent her whole life living and working within the family business in Teotitlan del Valle. Learning to weave at the young age of eight from her mother and father until the age of 15 where her interests developed into learning more of natural plant dyes. It led her to much research and experimentations and now today she can successfully achieve a wide range of shades of colour using only a handful of native plants.
At any time of the day, visitors can enter the family studio. Most people who venture up the hill have some knowledge of Porfirio, Juana and what their family have achieved. Once inside the studio Juana happily shares her knowledge where you will see her grinding the much-adorned indigo, to how they cultivate and process the highly valued Cochineal scale insect resulting in the historic Mexican scarlet colour.
Inside their family studio there is a showroom displaying many of their vibrant weaved creations that can be purchased at very reasonable prices or buyers may have the option of custom handmade pieces delivered to anywhere in the world. For a deeper understanding of how the family achieves so many vibrant colours they offer a unique experience of three-day or more intense natural dye workshops and weaving workshops. Juana and her family are very flexible in that they can accommodate any size group large or small or even teach their skills to one on one participants. The family members carry about their daily duties as they have always done regardless of their visitors.
Personally, I am grateful and deeply humbled for my experiences to shadow Juana as she shared her expert knowledge with me while I spent an interesting three days within their studio learning Juana’s natural dyeing techniques. Accompanied with a translator who is also a family member I understand how organically their movement has evolved. They opened their home in 2015 to educate at a perfect time. At a time, when the world started turning back towards nature in the aim to be more environmentally connected. Right now, I believe the village is on the cusp of change as the worlds demand for natural dye increases and as natural dyeing of fabrics is now back in vogue.
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