Summer 2003 and Winter 2003/2004

MIXTEC FIBER TRADITIONS The Ancient Realms of the Oaxacan Cloud People

his is an 8-day journey through the Oaxacan Mixteca uplands, focusing on the fiber traditions and back roads of this little known and seldom visited region. Four hundred yeas ago silk was king in the upper Mixteca. As we travel we will see the enormous, crumbling churches and convents on the edges of tiny villages that were built with silk riches. And we will visit the one village in the Mixteca that has continued with sericulture for over 450 years and find out why. The Mixteca is also the land of desert palm and the people are adept sombrero and basket weavers. We’ll meet with hat weavers and talk to some young women who are looking for ways to turn palm into something more profitable than 25-cent sombreros. We will visit with the last of the highland wool serape weavers and travel to the steep sided canyon with the great falls where the legend says the Cloud People, the Mixtecos, appeared on Earth from amongst the roots of a cypress tree.

We will spend a morning in Teotitlan del Valle, famous for its gorgeous wool rugs and natural dyeing, see yucca made into baskets, enjoy a market at out doorstep, eat the best of Oaxaca’s legendary cuisine and enjoy the open hospitality of rural Mexico.

ITINERARY

(B=Breakfast included, L=lunch, D=Dinner)

Day 1-Sunday. (D) Arrival. Today we will have our first meeting at 5:00 PM for an orientation, slide show covering Oaxacan fiber arts and a Oaxacan Sunday meal.

The paper factory of Vista Hermoso Etla is surrounded by lush growth and running water on the slopes of the Sierra Madre del Norte. Within the ornate building converted from a hydroelectric plant artisans craft papers from a variety of natural fibers.

Day 2-Monday. (B, L, D) We start our adventure on our feet, wandering into the center of old Oaxaca to look at a few select textile shops and meet the proprietors and see their collections of the best of Oaxacan textiles. Then we travel to the hillside town of Vista Hermosa Etla to visit a locally run, handmade paper workshop where fine papers are made with local fibers and dyed with earth and plant pigments. In the afternoon we will travel into the highland realm of the Mixtec people. Indeed, we will be going to the very place from which, according to legend, the first Mixtecs emerged from the roots of a giant cypress tree in the spectacular, hidden canyon of Apoala. Here we will spend the night in a small hostel.

Weaving sleeping mat (petate) of palm leaves in the village of San Lorenzo.

Day 3-Tuesday. (B, L) The morning light will find us in this cool, green canyon with the blue river flowing through the middle. Rising early and wandering is encouraged, as there is much to see here, from the small log cabins and flowered yards to the cool cypress groves along the river. Mid-morning we will regroup

The land of the Mixteca

and visit the home of two young women who have been working to change and improve their palm plaiting work. Throughout the Mixteca, desert palm is abundant and is plaited in the hands of thousands of Mixtecos into sombreros, baskets and mats. The going rate for a sombrero is 25 cents. These women are investing time in creating finer, more ornate baskets with the hopes of creating a bit more income and a better life for themselves. The Mixteca is also the land of sheep and wool, and well see a sheep sheared this morning. After lunch the day is open to explore more of this wonderful valley. There is the gorge and narrows up stream and the thundering fall and blue boulder pools downstream…or the terrace and sun back at the hostel. We spend the evening at the hostel again tonight.

Day 4- Wednesday. (B, L, D) We travel back up the switchbacks and out of the canyon this morning. Our path today follows the trail of the old Catholic Dominican sect and takes us through what was once the richest silk producing land in Mexico. Both are now but memories here, but along the way we will be seeing monuments to these memories in the form of the gigantic churches and convents that the Dominicans and silk wealth left behind. We will stop and explore the stone halls of these Catholic castles. And to keep our history in perspective, in the afternoon we will stop at an even older church; the stone temples in the pre-Hispanic Mixtec city of Huamelulpan. Here we will also be treated to a village lunch and a visit to the community museum put together by the villagers here to share some of their history. In the afternoon we will arrive in the bustling town of Tlaxiaco, which will serve as our base camp for the next three days.

Basket of yucca leaves

Day 5-Thursday. (B, L, D) The small, hillside village of Cuquila dates back over 1,500 years. Above the town are still to be found the stone temples and foundations of the old city. For those (like ourselves) not up to the steep hike to see the ruins, several dedicated villagers have put together a small community museum to showcase some of the finds from the ruins as well as to highlight the weaving tradition of the village- which is what brings us here in the first place. And well start our morning at the small house among the pines built by Emiliano Melchor, the muscle and inspiration behind the museum project. With him we will enjoy a country breakfast and learn how his family spins wool into fine thread and weaves with backstrap looms. Then we travel further down the road to the land of the Trique Indians, who wear some of the most lovely clothing in Oaxaca in the form of their laboriously woven and brocaded, full length huipiles, or gowns. Here we will visit with weavers and see why it takes months to make one of these huipiles.

Day 6- Friday (B,L,D) As we have seen, silk was once king in the Mixteca. Four dusty centuries now hide that history and the importance that silk once held in the land is completely forgotten. Except in one small village huddled below an enormous cliff. Here silk was never given up, and it is still cultivated to this day. It is the last village in the Mixteca where silk lives on. Of course we will stop in to learn about the local sericulture and see silk handspun on support spindles. Nearby we'll visit a village where yucca leaves are plaited into green baskets and decorative belts are woven on backstrap looms. In the afternoon we'll head into the boondocks to see some of the hidden wonders of the Mixtec countryside seldom visited by outsiders. Evening in Tlaxiaco.

Drop spindle, silk cocoons, and hand-spun silk

Day 7-Saturday. (B, L) As we sleep the town square outside of our hotel will be metamorphosing into a market. The first rays of sunlight will find, at our front door, a busy market filling fast with people from the far corners of the Mixtec highlands .You have the morning free to explore the market and soak in all the texture and aroma of this ancient and essential weekly custom. A bit before the rumbling stomachs of lunch we'll load up and travel back toward Oaxaca, stopping en route in a tiny town with cobbled streets and a human size church, where, on one side of the sleepy town square, there is a special little restaurant that serves up top rate, old style Mixtec cuisine. In the afternoon we will return to all the excitement of the big little city of Oaxaca.

The calm patience of fine worksmanship as well as the color of natural dyes emanates from these folded rugs of handspun wool in Teotitlan.

Day 8-Sunday. (B, L, D) This morning we will visit Oaxaca's most legendary weaving village, a village of 5,000 weavers, Teotitlan del Valle. Teotitlan is famous for its gorgeous wool rugs. We will enjoy an eye feast of these rugs, as well as a brunch feast of Teotitlan cuisine, which is arguably among the very best and most ancient in Oaxaca. Around mid-day we'll return to Oaxaca, stopping along the way to see a 2,000 year old tree said to have the biggest trunk of any tree in the Americas. You will have this last afternoon free to explore Oaxaca city more. We will meet in the evening for our final dinner at a high class joint in Oaxaca city.

You will likely be fortunate enough to encounter this guitarist in Oaxaca city's old town, and his sweet old romantic ballads.

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