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The Saturday market in town was outside the doorstep of our hotel. Unlike so many I’ve seen this one was not jam packed and many of the people dressed in indigenous clothes. We saw lots of unfamiliar foods. Prickly pear pads were being scraped of thorns. Packages of vegetables were prepared for soups. If you wanted to make mole all you needed to do was to ask the woman at the booth to prepare all the ingredients for you. Limestone needs to be boiled with corn to make tortillas. There were a lot of things I didn’t recognize. It was fun to mingle with the people.
Then we drove to a remote mountain village, Laguna Guadalupe, where Trique people live and where there the local women wear long huiples. We visited a home where many weavers gathered and set up their backstrap looms. It was fascinating to see different techniques. I watched one woman get her loom set up which had always mystified me. When you watch it being done it makes so much more sense. We were out in a yard mingling among 5 or 6 weavers. It was a heavenly experience.
We were fed lunch in a log cabin. We had tamales and some other soup with shredded beef and hot tortillas, of course.
Tomorrow we go out to a remote village, too. Today we drove in the mountains on more twisty roads.
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Peggy, only two people in my weaving class today guessed that those white dried things were cochineal bugs. One was my teacher, Joyce Robards, the other was a classmate. Both, of course, are dyers!
We then got into a discussion about how white bugs could turn red when squashed if it wasn’t blood. Final conclusion: chemical reaction, like indigo dye on cloth when exposed to air. What do you think?
Peggy
Greetings from Bangkok Thailand
Are they using natural or synthetic dyes. The picture of the woman all in blue is she from an area where they are dyeing with indigo.
Apologise for simple questions but I don’t know much this area of the world.
Love your blog and photos
Peggy, this is such a wonderful travelogue. And so much richness in the indigenous people and their weaving techniques. I love the muted colors of the natural dyes. The bright hues of today are not the traditional colors of the Mexican weavers. The old colors were much more earthy but still beautiful. I’ve watched a number of videos on youtube about weaving in Mexico and I’m always fascinated by their beautiful results on what seems to us like ‘primitive’ equipment.
Thank you again for sharing this beautiful collection of photos and information.
Regards,
Tom Z.
IL usa