Picking Up Threads of Ancient Tradition

The tradition of weaving among the Zapotec Indians from the state of Oaxaca goes back more than 2,000 years.

The glorious colors, imaginative designs and fine texture of their hand-spun tapestries are testament to the months and months of hard work it can take to complete just one rug or wall hanging. To dye 1 pound of yarn to a reddish hue, for instance, requires the larvae from about 700,000 cochineal insects plucked from the agave cactus.

In the tiny village of Teotitlan del Valle, about 300 miles southwest of Mexico City, families toil in their homes, washing and carding the wool.

Among them are the Mendozas, who have passed this tradition down for generations. This weekend, one of their own, Antonio Mendoza G., will be the featured artist at the two-day Flower & Garden Festival in Mission San Juan Capistrano. Highlights of this fifth annual event include gardening lectures, unique plants and other demonstrations.

Mendoza, 27, who spends his time weaving or exhibiting works nationwide, shuttles between the family homestead in Oaxaca and his sister’s home in Santa Ana.

This weekend, he will be demonstrating his craft using his great-grandfather’s telar, an unwieldy wooden loom that takes up a large portion of the patio of his sister’s home. The antique will be dismantled and brought to the show, where Mendoza will create a flower-themed rug before an audience.

Some of the loom’s original beams are worn and pockmarked, but the comb-like wooden slats through which the fabric runs are still strong. “Many people in Oaxaca have replaced those with steel, but it changes the texture of the wool,” Mendoza said.

The pride Mendoza has for the art he inherited from his forefathers is evident in the way he talks about his craft, and how he wants to “rescue” what he thinks has been lost.

“My parents did it the old way and the new way,” Mendoza said. “But I found a lot of techniques that had been forgotten. My mission is to revive this and not to let it die.”

Mendoza said economic pressures caused the changes. When the outside world began to notice the artistic contributions of the Zapotec people, Mendoza said, there was a strong international demand for these unique works. Up until then, artificial concepts such as chemicals, synthetic dyes and manufactured cotton were foreign to the Mexican Indians, who had never sold to traders. But the rug dealers did not want to pay the high prices required for traditional production, so the artisans were forced to take shortcuts, such as synthetic wool.

“A lot of people know how to do it but don’t do it properly,” Mendoza said, standing amid his self-made tapestries that adorn the walls and floor of his sister’s living room. When in Orange County, he uses this space and the patio as his studio.

Back in Mexico, his brothers Taurino and Jeronimo and other family members are busy turning wool into yarn at the spinning wheel, cultivating the dyes that will be used and weaving. They all learned these crafts at an early age, but Antonio was the youngest to start. He was so eager, he asked his parents to teach him when he was only 7.

Weaving requires skill and patience. The cactus beetle larvae, for instance, are left to dry in the sun for about four months. The shades of red are obtained by grinding them on a metate, a flat stone, and then mixing the powder with lime juice and salt and bringing it to a boil to make the dye.

For gold and yellow, pomegranate skins are a good source. Blue and green come from the indigo plant, and tree bark makes a brown or rust color. The designs are inspired by events in history, Navajo influences, patterns and symbols from the Zapotec culture and even contemporary art.

Next year, Mendoza said, he will try raising his own sheep, which will eliminate the need to buy wool. This will make the entire operation theirs from scratch.

Mendoza also will appear at the Orange County Fair this month, and in Santa Fe, N.M., San Diego, New York and Mexico City this year.