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wrapped
in color

Legacies of the Mexican Sarape

Join Zapotec textile artist Porfirio Gutiérrez and ASM curators to learn about the iconic Mexican Saltillo sarape’s history, regional influence, and contemporary manifestations. Discover how Indigenous textiles embody the interconnection of peoples, traditions, arts, culture, and environmental stewardship.

For thousands of years, Indigenous people of the Americas have woven textiles on backstrap looms using local materials, including cotton, other plant fibers, and animal hair. In Mexico, as in other parts of the Americas, weaving practices were further shaped by Spanish colonization, which introduced sheep and the treadle loom. The distinctive Saltillo sarape design developed out of this early colonial period. Today, Indigenous and Hispanic weavers in Mexico and the southwestern United States continue to interpret the Saltillo sarape’s designs.

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Porfirio Gutiérrez

“This art form is a deep part of my culture and is my life. It is like my native language or our ceremonies. The cochineal produces a color just like the color of our blood; the weft and the warp are like the tissue in our body. Textiles are our second skin as well as a means of expression.”

Join Zapotec textile artist Porfirio Gutiérrez and ASM curators to learn about the iconic Mexican Saltillo sarape’s history, regional influence, and contemporary manifestations. Discover how Indigenous textiles embody the interconnection of peoples, traditions, arts, culture, and environmental stewardship.

For thousands of years, Indigenous people of the Americas have woven textiles on backstrap looms using local materials, including cotton, other plant fibers, and animal hair. In Mexico, as in other parts of the Americas, weaving practices were further shaped by Spanish colonization, which introduced sheep and the treadle loom. The distinctive Saltillo sarape design developed out of this early colonial period. Today, Indigenous and Hispanic weavers in Mexico and the southwestern United States continue to interpret the Saltillo sarape’s designs.

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