Santa Ana del Valle

For my final week of fieldwork, Rosie, Joanna and I were sent to Santa Ana del Valle, which is a very short forty minute drive outside the city of Oaxaca. Santa Ana is known for its intricate textile weaving. We spent two days learning about the processes involved for preparing the wool and weaving with telares de pedal, which are the machines the artisans use to make very ornate tapetes, like the ones shown here.

I interviewed a women´s weaving group called Tejiendo Esperanza. Talking to these women was one of my favorite field work experiences during my stay in Oaxaca. Each of them has a really interesting story to tell. The weaving cooperative was formed a little less than a year ago as a means to improve the economic status of these artisans in this specific pueblo. The weavers of Santa Ana del Valle have very strong competition with another more popular weaving community called Teotitlan. The current political situation in Oaxaca has also closed off the international market to these women who previously relied on tourism to bring in the necessary income to provide for their families.

I am hoping I will have a chance in the future to go back to Santa Ana to work with these woman again. I would really like to do more to help them build a larger market for product consumption. One of the weavers told me right before I left that if the political situation in Oaxaca does not get resolved soon, they will no longer be able to afford to stay in the pueblo because the work they do is very laborious and hardly lucrative. As a result, Oaxaca is at great risk of losing some of the most important artisan forms that contribute to its cultural identity, a reputation that has been formed around age old traditions that have been maintained since before the Spanish conquest.