Teotitlán del Valle: Where the soul of the people weaves the soul of the world

At the foot of a valley surrounded by mountains lies Teotitlán, a place where adobe houses with red brick walls rise, adorned with arches and central courtyards, where wool rugs unfold from the entrance road as if floating in the sky. There is a geometry embedded in those textiles of animals and frets, a geometry that originates from Zapotec architecture and can be appreciated on the walls of the main church and in the walls of houses. Traces of ancient stelae and settlements appear.

The streets of downtown Teotitlán are a brilliant explosion of colours unveiling murals created by contemporary artists depicting the most emblematic figures of the culture: corn, women with very long hair, dances, and the plumed serpent or Bæl Giæ´/Quetzalcoatl, one of the deities inhabiting the valleys. Oral tradition tells that this giant serpent with fretted skin appears to the townspeople near the churchyard; whoever manages to pluck a feather from it receives a reward.

Locals say that this place was founded by the constellation of a bird, the Celestial Constellation, and in the Zapotec language, they name it Xigiæ, which means “under or beneath the stone.”

Teotitlán del Valle, a place close to the gods, owes its prestige to wool rugs dyed with natural pigments made by masters, to the Dance of the Feather, and for being one of the oldest Zapotec settlements in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca.

Community Cultural Centre

The Community Cultural Centre is connected to the town’s main square by an architectural design in line with the aesthetics of the surroundings: wrought iron reflecting light and shadows of Zapotec iconography, rugs floating in the corridors, cactus gardens and flora of the region. The museum addresses three main axes: uses and customs, festivities, and artisanal production; as well as a library to promote reading and the use of Zapotec. It has rooms with exhibitions of contemporary textile art by local artists, and rooms on history, geography, language, and culture of the area, which constitute a journey through the intangible heritage of Teotitlán del Valle.

Where: Main Square

Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm.

Balaa Xtee Guech Gulal Community Museum

This museum houses records from the Mesoamerican past and the history of the Zapotec people up to contemporary times. It is located in the second settlement of this area dedicated to the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatl. Its collections consist of archaeological pieces, Zapotec effigies and vestiges, as well as utensils that the inhabitants have commercialised and adopted in their daily lives from the colonial period to the present day. Artefacts such as the spinning wheel and the backstrap loom, which were used before the pedal loom, are exhibited alongside elements of the contemporary life of the inhabitants.

There is a section dedicated to the Danza de la Pluma, one of the most emblematic dances of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, which takes place in July; a political-religious promise that a person makes to the Precious Blood of Christ in order to become a dancer. This dance is a representation of the Spanish Conquest in which girls portray Malinche and the dancers, adorned with a headdress weighing up to five kilos and coins on their chest and waist marking the tempo of the melody, dance for around twelve hours non-stop.

Where: Main Square

Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm.

El Huizache + María Ospina

In the El Huizache studio, the eyes are flooded with textures and natural dyes, intense and subdued tones flowing from flowers and herbs. Originally the house of the Mendoza family, it has now become a space for workshops, dyes and plants, diners seated at the table, and restored rooms. “We offer an everyday life experience; we teach the work we have learned since we were little; people who come are impressed with the pigments, the cooking, the dyeing, with family life. This house is full of stories; it belonged to the grandparents, and we haven’t changed anything,” says Verónica Bautista, an expert dyer in extracting pigments from plants such as marigold, epazote, and indigo.

This house also hosts Angélica Torres’s project, creator of the brand María Ospina: enveloping garments, without sizes, that women can wear while breaking down prejudices about their bodies, all those stereotypes imposed by the patriarchal system. “Designing size-less pieces is a catharsis, without thinking about perfect bodies. I always made my own clothes, thinking about feeling good and comfortable with my body (…) I see people on the street, and then I imagine modifying their clothes right there; I change things, I add buttons in my imagination. That’s how the garments arise,” says Angélica. Her mother taught her to sew when she was a child, and later, she studied pattern making and took courses in natural dyes at the Centro Cultural San Pablo and the San Agustín Arts Centre in Oaxaca. The transformation of her brand, María Ospina, emerged in 2019 when she met the dyeing teacher Verónica Bautista. Then, they devised the concept of the studio, a place where the creation of colours arises, the sublime experimentation of dyes, and where the canvases are dyed, which later become María Ospina’s garments. Verónica is in charge of the creative process to pigment and create the colour palette on the fabric canvases; Angélica, through pattern making and design, turns them into unique pieces: shirts of deep sky, salmon pants, blouses with subtle traces of flowers that embrace the bodies.

Where: Ignacio Allende 27, Teotitlán del Valle

San Pascual Candles

This family workshop is mainly composed of women dedicated to preserving the making of stewardship and ceremonial candles. The craft inherited in the family from generation to generation is now the starting point for innovative pieces: aromatic candles, interior decoration candles, and candles made for special celebrations. The family decided to go further and give way to the designs they create together: cacti, skulls, marigold flowers, Day of the Dead bread, red roses, carnations, hearts, and lotus flowers.

The candles are made through a traditional process in which beeswax is melted in pots, then shaped with wooden moulds and with their own hands. The resulting wax figures are immersed in water. From there come green leaves, the delicate petals of a white rose, the centre of a red heart.

Where: Aquiles Serdán 26, Teotitlán del Valle

Hours: Monday to Sunday from 9 am to 6 pm.

A place of textiles

One of the main activities in Teotitlán del Valle is its textile production. Julio César Bautista, a Zapotec language poet and artisan, narrates a bit of history: “The pedal loom is a device that a friar brought and thus innovated weaving, because before the backstrap loom was used (…), I learned to weave as a child, playing on overturned wooden chairs, there I would weave the weft. It was a very common game among children of the past.” Like other young people in his community, Julio César learned to weave from drawings, just as his father, Sergio Bautista, taught him. Later, he began learning geometric shapes with his uncle Lorenzo Bautista, a master dyer who also taught him the art of pigments. He learned to dye with fruits, plants, and animals: cochineal, indigo, walnut shells, avocado, and epazote. Thus began Gáañil, a project where he is responsible for pigmentation to weaving on the pedal loom to create bags, notebooks, tlacoyales, and rugs with his own designs of jaguars, frets, and serpents. For Julio César, the act of weaving runs parallel to writing poetry: “I have a notebook next to me, I focus, it’s a trance. Weaving goes hand in hand; I create lines and words.” One of his poems in Zapotec language says:

*Laaz xteen bēnny rúyntxeey laaz gexhlyu

laayn ni radaa nis

laayn ni rukwatsen nisgyæ

kēdríllyendi binny ni guzibinnyu.

The soul of the people weaves the soul of the world

that’s why water is born

that’s why rain hides

the seed you sowed doesn’t sprout.

Dónde: Gaanilrugs