THE HUIPIL OF ALDAMA A WORK OF ART
Aldama is located in the region of Los Altos de Chiapas and is bordered to the north by Chalchihuitán, to the east by Chenalhó, to the south by Chamula and to the west by Larraínzar and Santiago el Pinar. In Aldama, the main economic activity is the cultivation of cornfields and textile weaving in homes. The municipality of Aldama has a high index of marginalization.
In Aldama, Chiapas, the huipil for daily use and the ceremonial huipil are made, both with their iconographies, meanings and elaboration that require great skill and technique on the backstrap loom and at the time of weaving. The garment is made up of two woven and brocaded canvases in backstrap loom that are joined by hand stitching in the middle and on the sides, leaving space for the arms and the head. The brocade can vary in quantity, as the more elaborate huipiles for daily use have more brocaded lines horizontally. The simplest garments only include a hand embroidery around the neck and a horizontal brocade at the bust.
Regarding iconography, the most common brocade in these huipiles is the muk-ta-luch or "design of the universe", a diamond-shaped design extremely important in Mayan cosmogony. From the beginning to the end of the process, it takes between 40 and 50 hours distributed in periods of 4 to 5 hours of work per day for an artisan to make a huipil of this type.
This garment, unlike many others from Los Altos de Chiapas, has certain limitations to be acquired or to contact the artisans due to communication and signal difficulties, however, you can obtain any of their garments in our Just portal.
