SAN CRISTOBAL, A HUIPIL COMMUNITY

Last week, La Huipilista spent a few days at Taller Leñateros, in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. San Cris, as it is lovingly called by some, is in many ways very similar to San Miguel de Allende. Gorgeous colonial architecture, grand churches and precious plazas, colorful facades, although with more varied color choices from blue to green to hot pink. Upscale restaurants of every kind, near perfect climate but with more rain, and the same friendly, generous people. But that might be where the similarity ends.
 







 

Ample sidewalks and walking streets that ring the central plaza abound with sidewalk cafes, buildings that are lower, often not more than one or two stories tall. Indigenous peoples from surrounding communities, offering artesania and wearing tipica traje, i.e. huipiles, and the women's skirts are made from sheepskin as often as from the loom. With all of this, it reflected the Mayan influence of their brothers and sisters across the border in Guatemala. Indigenous languages too, mostly Tzotzil, are incredibly well preserved, and they speak it more often than Spanish.


















Even though I had planned to write about the workshop I took, I'm going to continue down this line of thought and feature some of the fabulous huipiles and other textiles. The Museo de los Altos de Chiapas and Museo de los Trajes Regionales "Sergio Castro" had some examples of the finest clothing I've seen. 

And so, I leave you to drool over these, until the next time, when I tell you about the paper making workshop at Taller Leñateros.