Blog #2: Brandon's thoughts on Teotitlan del Valle

Our trip to Teotitlan was a great example of the reading by Lynn Stephen because it not only showed us the importance of the weaving to their economy, but also how it has shifted away from the farming that first started the city.  The shop we visited was a ninth  generation weaving family home, which maintained the traditions from the past. This was unusual because most families have since moved to synthetic fibers or cheaper production methods. As shown in this picture the traditional methods of wool brushing and spinning are still used at this particular site, and the quality of ingredients used in dyes and production are laid out before the customers as they enter the shop.  Because their income is solely based on the weavings they create, the family we visited was the most expensive but also the highest quality, which has earned them a constant stream of customers looking for the most authentic of the alfombras. The economic boom that the state of Oaxaca experienced begins in 1948 according to Lynn Stephen’s Zapotec Women, because in that time a major national highway was completed which was “spurred on by the cash earnings that returning migrants began to spend on products produced in Mexico and the United States.”  However, Stephen points out that the market for the blankets made by the Zapotec weavers within Mexico began to die and needed a new market to sell their goods, this market came from the United States. Because of their relatively high price versus synthetic goods the Zapotecs needed the tourist market to sustain not only their work, but their lifestyle. The place we visited cited several examples of American customers who come in and request designs that have meaning to them specifically or to come visit the site and purchase rugs with Zapotec designs.  Their work is exhibited in art galleries around the world as authentic native Meso-American art.  Although the reading follows the changing role of women in the weaving community, the house we visited showed a more traditional role system where the women were in charge of preparing the wool and the men were the weavers. While it is possible that the women were simply not weaving at the time, the man of the house told us that his grandfather was the master weaver and that the responsibility was passed on and there was no indication that the women were involved in any of the actual weaving of the wool once it was processed and dyed.