A Saltillo Diamond Exchange 11/17/24-11/26/24

November 17 – Arrive in Mexico City, Drive to Puebla, Mexico. 

At the airport we met Heidi McKinnon, who organized and helped us navigate most of our time in Mexico, as well as Ignacio (Nacho)  Netzauhualcoyotl, and his brother Pedro Netzauhualcoyotl. 

November 18 - We enjoyed breakfast and discussion with the UNESCO Creative Cities representative of Puebla and spent a bit of time shopping and visiting in this beautiful city.  We were visiting as artists from Santa Fe, another UNESCO Creative City. We then drove to Contla to visit the studio and school of our host Nacho, and the Netzauhualcoyotl family weaving studio, getting a glimpse into their workspaces.  We met Nacho's son Isaac, and his cousin Sarita. 

November 19 - We made a visit to Museo de Bellas Artes de Tlaxcala , met Director of Museum who gave us a tour of Tapestry Exhibit called “Sinfonia del Color” that was from Taller Nacional de Tapiz which operated from 1973 - 1995. This was a fabulous tapestry show, and we will be sharing the pictures from the show in another blog post.

We then visited the Palacio del Gobierna on the Tlaxcala plaza (which is a government building in Tlaxcala) to see the recently completed frescos. They presented the history of the Pre-Spanish culture of Tlaxcala and the arrival of the Spanish in Tlaxcala including the partnership that defeated the Aztecs, between the people of Tlaxcala and the Spanish.  It is a deep and rich history and these frescos were impressively extensive and detailed.  One could spend many fascinating hours learning this history from the artwork covering these walls.  We were lucky to have knowledgable folks to explain the images.

We visited the Museo de Memoria in Tlaxcala which displayed a duplicate of the now lost codex of the encounter of Tlaxcala with the Spanish, depictions of the use of the Tilma, interesting information on the development and cultivation of cochineal, and the possible evolution of the Spanish loom from the backstrap loom.  That evening we visited the first church built by the Spanish in the "new world".

November 20 - We walked around Contla visiting other weavers like the Romano brothers who were famous weavers in Mexico. Juan wove mostly classic Saltillo Sarapes and was a National Treasure.  His brother mostly wove simpler tapestries.

We had a warm welcome from the Director of Artesania de Tlaxcala who received us and gave us gifts.  His representative gave us a tour of the Museum of Tlaxcala where they were displaying a textile competition from Tlaxcala including Nacho and Pedro’s work.  We also saw exhibits of some other crafts from Tlaxcala. We watched a weaver weaving belt/sash fabric using a treadle loom with a warp tied to a pole which seemed to illustrate the transition from backstrap to floor loom weaving in Mexico, much like we had seen illustrated in the Museo de Memoria. After that we went to visit a vocational school classroom where they are teaching students French "high warp" tapestry.

November 21 - We spent time at the Netzauhualcoyotl studio full of looms which was located at Peter's home two blocks from Nacho’s studio.  This was going to be a chance for us to spend time at their looms learning what Nacho and Pedro wanted to pass on to us.  We met his father who was in his 70’s and still weaving.  Most of the looms had fly shuttle mechanisms, including a nine foot wide loom and one old industrial Jacquard loom that wove 20 inches wide, but clearly wasn't in current use.  While we were in this studio, Nacho’s sister was weaving away at what was clearly a lovely, traditional, Saltillo.  We wove on a diamond twill rug on the seven foot loom and each of us wove for a time until we learned the treadling and shuttle sequence. Then we switched to a four foot loom to learn the number sequence of what Nacho felt was an important Saltillo serape stripe commonly used on Mexican serapes over the years.  We returned to Nacho’s studio for a tour of his working/teaching studio.  Nacho showed the weavings he had in progress on his loom, drawings of designs that his father had made, and the students' weavings in progress.

 We then started dyeing.  Emily ground cochineal and indigo on a metate. Irvin and Lisa ground tequesquite for use as a mordant.  Nacho showed us how he prepared a cold vat for dyeing cotton with indigo. He used lime and the tequesquite powder which contains sodium bicarbonate, salt, potassium carbonate, sodium sulfate and clay) and wetted indigo.  He also prepared a vat of cochineal to which he added two cups of ground cochineal, squeezed lemon juice from 6 lemon, as well as some of the tequesquite that we had ground. He boiled the vat for about an hour. He prepared a vat for dyeing yellow from a plant called pericón (Mexican terragon), added tequesquite, and boiled that for one hour.  He placed skeins of cotton in the indigo and skeins of wool in the cochineal and pericón.  No heat was applied for the indigo, but heat was applied to the cochineal and pericón.  We were able to weave on Nacho’s 54 inch width and on a thirty inch width, both set up with a far finer warp than we are accustomed to weaving on, but these were set up for weaving Saltillo serapes.

November 22   - We walked around Contla visiting other weavers like the Romano brothers who were also renowned weavers in Mexico. Juan wove mostly classic Saltillo Sarapes and was a National Treasure.  His brother mostly wove much simpler tapestries. We went back to Nacho’s studio to rinse the yarn we had dyed.

We then visited a rebozo weaver whose studio had several fly shuttle looms and a gentleman weaving a rebozo.  Lisa and Heidi both purchased rebozos. We then walked to a hall where we gave a history of the Trujillo weaving in Chimayo, New Mexico, including a question and answer period.  We had an interpreter so that Lisa And Emily could speak in English.  Irvin gave his talk in Spanish.  The audience was filled with weavers and we were made to feel very welcome.

November 23 –  We visited the pyramids at the regional Museum of Tlaxcala at Calcaxtla.  The pyramids were discovered 48 years ago and were dated to pre Classic Period ( pre Aztec and pre mayan) in mesoamerican history and attributed to the Olmec civilization.  They developed irrigation, pottery making and architecture.   The relatively recently excavated pyramids had painted murals within the walls of the pyramid that retained their original colors made from Indigo, cochineal and a yellow mineral.  There were also courts for games within the pyramid.  We then walked on a road that led us to fields of vegetables being irrigated. The Tlaxcalan people were farming with water ditches before the Spanish arrived and showed the Spanish how to cultivate food.  That is one reason the Spanish held the Tlaxcalan people in such high esteem and why they invited some of them to New Mexico not long after settling here.

November 24 – We drove back to Mexico City.

November 25 – We explored Mexico City for one day, but failed to visit the museums we wanted to because they are closed on Mondays.  Which just means we need to return.

 

November 26 – We returned to Albuquerque.  In Dallas, still early in the morning, we saw this New Mexico True video on various monitors by the airport's gates.