Huipils and their Hidden Meaning

 

Highland Guatemalan Huipil

“a communication of relationship that is anchored within the Earth and extends into the Cosmos”

The traditional clothing along in the villages along the shores of Lake Atitlan and surrounding highlands represent a way of dressing that speaks to a time before mass production of textiles.  Within these villages, the women still spin cotton, dye it with the plants that surround their homes and weave on a backstrap loom.  What may their close proximity to nature and art reveal about their interconnectivity?

Each of these processes represent something unique and deep that has been lost in many modern societies. Their weaving practices have remained intact for thousands of years, despite the pressures and convenience that machine made clothing brings.

Their huipil, or shirt is a living representation of this human endeavor. It acts as a communication of relationship that is anchored within the Earth and extends into the Cosmos. Each village, even though sometimes a mile apart has their own designs, their own patterns that communicate the origins and relationships of the wearer.

For example, in Santiago, they see themselves as the “bird people” and they embroider birds along the neckline of their huipils for women and within the pants of men. The parks and shores are speckled with many species of birds— the voices of these animals are present as one walks along the streets of the village just as much as the local language is. One could hear these birds singing just by seeing the colorful embroidered huipil of a woman living here.


Traditional Huipil from Santiago, Atitlan

‘The Bird People’

Within another village, San Juan, the traditional weaving practices have thrived more than others.  Here most women spend most of their days spinning and weaving textiles on a backstrap loom.  They speak of the entire process of weaving like giving birth from warping the loom to the movement one embodies while weaving on a backstrap loom. 

For the Tz’utujiles, weaving is a birthing process and for them, their weavings are alive, encoded with many symbols and colors that carry messages rooting them to the land they are from.

This kind of art-making is rare today.  This kind of ecological artmaking is an ancient form of co-creating with the land that was once very present in the lives of humankind.  But the modern lives of many people does not make space for such practices.  At what expense?

What would it be like to wear something that you made through not only your own hands but through your own time-honored connection to the Earth around you? Watching how the plants grew, what tints they gave, and what time to harvest them all would come from years of living in close relationship with the land.

The practice of weaving a textile on a backstrap loom is time extensive.  One shawl could take a month to complete, working 5-6 hours per day. 

Weaving becomes a lifestyle, a way of living that literally weaves one into the Earth.

The huipil of San Juan consists of depictions of cotton seeds.

Traditional Huipil from San Juan, Atitlan

Seeds of Cotton—

For the Tz’utujiles, weaving is a birthing process and for them, their weavings are alive, encoded with many symbols and colors that carry messages rooting them to the land they are from.

Naturally, they embody their intimate connection with the cotton trees and see themselves one of the same with the sacred tree that provides the clothing they wear.

The clothing becomes an extension of their soul, or essence, through the practice of artmaking—weaving.  Of course this is one form of artmaking but believed to be one of the most ancient. This is the kind of relationship that I am interested in restoring or evolving for the Western world to consider.

Learning from these cultures, like the Tz’utujiles in Guatemala and bringing forth these deep felt interconnections between the land, art and identity may bring deep insights on how to move forward in a world where people often feel separate from the land, and no longer sees themselves as a part of the living Earth.