Venustiano Carranza
Chiapas, Mexico
Venustiano Carranza is both the name of a city on the side of a mountain and one of 118 municipalities (similar to U.S. counties) in Chiapas. The municipality of Venustiano Carranza includes a lot of land dedicated to sugar cane plantations. Many of the indigenous people living in the area are Tzotzil-speaking Maya.
Venustiano Carranza, the city, is perched on the side of a mountain in the middle of large sugar cane plantations. Photo by Janet Schwartz, 2011.
Weaver Rosario Gomez Espinoza demonstrates that she still remembers how to spin a fine cotton thread, though she no longer weaves with hand-spun thread. Bulk raw cotton is no longer available in the valley and commercial thread is plentiful. Her granddaughter Karina del Carmen de la Torre Calvo uses red commercial thread on a winder at home in the city of Venustiano Carranza. Photo by Janet Schwartz, 2011.
Angela Vazquez de la Torre teaches her granddaughter Laura Jacqueline Gomez Ramirez the art of Tzotzil-Maya weaving in the city of Venustiano Carranza. Photo by Janet Schwartz, 2009.
María Luisa Mendoza Vazquez, a Tzotzil-speaking Maya from the small community of Paraíso Grijalva, sits on the cool cement floor to weave a fine, transparent, brocaded cloth made of divided commercial 30/2 thread. . Photo by Janet Schwartz, 2010.
María Luisa’s daughter Marisa Fabiola Gomez Mendoza shows off the dress her mother made her for her 15th birthday celebration. The brocade patterns are enlarged traditional designs often used in the area, though the dress itself is quite modern. Photo by Janet Schwartz, 2010.
This Tzotzil-speaking Maya gentleman wears a Carranza shirt (hand-woven transparent fabric with rows of brocaded designs) during a religious festival in Venustiano Carranza. Photo by Janet Schwartz, 2010.
Weaver and storeowner Rosa Vazquez Espinoza waves from her colorful front door in Paraíso Grijalva. Photo by Kathleen Vitale, 2010.
The fine, white, transparent fabric woven on a back-strap loom in Venustiano Carranza uses a divided 30/2 commercial thread to achieve the gossamer cloth fit for a king. Photo by Kathleen Vitale, 2010.