Maguey Journey: Discovering Textiles in Guatemala

Illustrations

Figures Frontispiece: Map of Guatemala 3.1. Bonifacia’s house with mecate growing nearby 11 3.2. Tomas with morrales in his market stall 18 3.3. Lucas using a mecapal to carry maguey leaves 21 3.4. Francisco wearing a fine morral that he made 22 4.1. Eugenio and his single maguey plant 25 5.1. Alfredo sewing a palm hat on a sewing machine 32 5.2. Maguey growing in a field 33 5.3. Ángela and her granddaughter selling rope in the market 38 5.4. César’s finished rope 41 6.1. Maguey plant (Furcraea sp. nov.) in flower 49 7.1. Nicolás trimming a maguey leaf 52 7.2. Harvested maguey plants 54 7.3. Lucas scraping a maguey leaf 57 7.4. Pablo and family processing maguey leaves 58 7.5. Andrés splitting leaves with a cow-bone tool 59 7.6. Nicolás roasting maguey leaves over a fire 61 7.7. Elsa removing steamed maguey leaves from a clay pot 63 7.8. Spike through a maguey leaf 65 7.9. Federico scraping raw maguey leaves 66 Illustrations 7.10. Bonifacia “throwing” a maguey leaf on a rock to break down the thick outer skin 68 7.11. Eugenio pulling maguey leaves between two pieces of rebar 69 9.1. Ermiño (with palo) and family members leg spinning 76 9.2. Lucas leg spinning 77 9.3. Cirenuela with bundles of spun maguey 80 9.4. Isabella and helpers with spinning wheel 81 9.5. María’s children with hand-cranked rope spinner 82 10.1. Close-up of ply-split darning 88 10.2. María making a small hammock 90 10.3. Diagrams of a pyramid knot and interlacing 93 10.4. Suli setting up a cinta warp on a warping board 98 10.5. Suli weaving a cinta on a backstrap loom 99 10.6. Basilia weaving a sembrador on a fixed-vertical loom 100 10.7. Three mecapales set up on one loom 102 10.8. Candelario weaving a bag on a vertical-frame loom 103 10.9. Toribio with a fancy bag that he made 104 10.10. Alfredo weaving on a treadle loom 105 10.11. Basilia sewing the sides of a sembrador 106 10.12. Technique diagrams 107 11.1. Mule with cinta and gamarrón 110 12.1. Mule with two redes and a tenedor 117 12.2. Pablo and María selling redes in the market 119 14.1. Alonso with the net bags his family made 129 A.2.a. Looped and knit bags 135 A.2.b. Linked bag 136 A.2.c. Woven bag 136 A.3. Fancy saddlebag components 137 x ILLUSTRATIoNS Photo Essay following page 126 1. Leaves are cut from the maguey plant 2. The leaves are pounded and then soaked 3. Leaves are scraped to expose fibers 4. Fibers drying in the sun 5. A taravilla, for spinning maguey fibers 6. Small spinning wheel 7. Figure-eight looping technique for making redes 8. “Finger-knitting” a morral 9. A matate made with the linking technique 10. Setup of a string heddle on a horizontal loom 11. Turkeys contained in baskets and redes at market 12. A sembrador that was woven on a fixed-vertical loom 13. A small hammock made with the linking technique 14. Buyer with red sellers at market 15. A maguey fiber market Illustrations xi ...