Thursday, May 21, 2009

Un Poco De Estilo Cultural

¿Que tal readers?


Today we're gonna go a bit south to a tiny little village just outside of Oaxaca City, Mexico. A village called Tlacolula de Matamoros. I happened a very interesting tour there once, of an art sale. But what was the art to be?

I'm sure you're all familiar with that funky design style we all think of when someone mentions the term "Mexican blanket," well, that's exactly it! I had happened upon a real indigineous group of Mexicans, called Mixteca, in what was literally the middle of nowhere. Picture your classic Mexican scene in a movie, with deserts and cacti all around... well that's where this place was! It looked a bit out of place for the scenery - it was a little bit modern and new looking, but regardless of that, these Mixteca people were hand crafting these Mexican blankets and rugs, using the same tools their people had been using for hundreds of years!

Using the liquid that is found within a certain type of cactus, the Mixteca people are able to create an incredibly permanent type of dye, and they also gather a similar dye by collecting the bugs that eat this cactus, squishing them up and using their blood as the dye! (I hope that's not too graphic for anyone!)


Anyway, there are tons of other ways for them to create colours, and make designs and such,
but I figured I might spare you from my ranting and just show you some incredible pictures! :D





Here's a shot of a fairly large rug - this piece costs about 900 pesos, equal to more or less 95 dollars american, but it took probably about 6 weeks of work on this piece alone to create.









Here's a picture of one of the old-fashioned machines that they still use to create these blankets!

And finally, here's a shot of the interesting building found in the middle of nowhere, Tlacolula! :P

Well, it's not much of a testament for me, but I hope you've enjoyed this post, and that you've gleaned a little insight to the real Mexico!

Kristian, out!

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