Jeffrey A. Gordon

Teotitlán del Valle is a town of about five thousand that seems much smaller. It’s wedged into a narrow stream valley that winds its way up into the mountains, about a 20 minute ride east from the city of Oaxaca. On our recent tour, we visited Teotitlán twice, focussing our efforts on the  cactus scrub and oak forest that lies above town. There, with some patience and luck, it’s possible to find birds like the endemic Oaxaca Sparrow.

OK, it’s no Painted Bunting, I admit, but it is a globally rare, interesting bird. But it’s not especially colorful. Neither is its habitat, at least in winter.

Downslope a little, things are bit more chromatic, but still dominated by dark greens, browns, and yellows.

The town itself is fairly somber, though some of the doors and walls are painted in rich hues. That turns out to be only the tiniest hint of what lies behind them–Teotitlán del Valle is famous for its color and is in fact fairly bursting with it.

Here’s the kitchen at Tlamanalli, a restaurant owned by the Mendoza family. Abigail Mendoza Ruiz and her sisters serve delicious Zapotecan food–the meal we has there was easily my favorite of the tour. The flavors were as bright as the tile work.

But it was after lunch that the real visual feast began. We walked uphill a couple of blocks to Mendoza home, entering the courtyard.

The Mendoza’s other business, as if being restauranteurs wasn’t enough, is rug-making. Here’s a small selection of their work:

Here, Abigail displays an especially fine rug:

It takes months of work to produce a piece like this. Even simpler rugs take weeks. Working with her sister, Marcelinea, Abigail acquainted us with a little of the process.

First the raw wool must be carded, a process that involves running it back and forth between what looks like two large dog brushes. Then the carded wool is spun. Abigail makes it look almost as natural as a spider spinning her web and it’s nearly as miraculous. Then the yarn is dyed to give it those fabulous colors. Dyes are made from a variety of natural materials, but certainly one of the most interesting is the carmine that comes from cochineal, scale insects that infest cacti.

Above, Abigail grinds the dried insect bodies using a stone matate. Below, the matate, along with cochineal both whole and ground:

The powder is added to a giant copper kettle, along with lemon, alum, and other ingredients that influence the shade of red produced and help fix the color.

Marcelinea (blue braid) stirs the dye while Abigail (red) interprets. Below, a look inside the cauldron–the ramen-looking stuff is the yarn.

Abigail hoists the now-red yarn for all to see.

Yes, this was a tourist exercise, without doubt. But as someone who has made a career of natural history interpretation and ecotourism, I can assure you that the Mendozas are amazingly good at at what they do. They make their customers feel truly welcome and share their work with an enthusiasm and conviction that I don’t believe can be faked. The proof, after all, is in the (corn) pudding, as well as in the weaving.

I didn’t manage to get any photos of the looms and the actual weaving process. Suffice it to say that it’s unimaginable to me how people can lay yarn on in such a way as to produce these intricate patterns. We couldn’t stop admiring–and buying–these gorgeous textiles.

Our afternoon with the Mendozas was a wonderful interlude. Rather than feeling like an interruption of our birding trip, it felt like a natural and welcome deepening of it. I wouldn’t trade the time we spent there. Or with that Oaxaca Sparrow.

PS: We weren’t the first to be impressed by Abigail Mendoza’s ability to demonstrate traditional lifeways. Here’s a Culinary Institute of America video podcast of Abigail preparing Mole Negro. Unfortunately, it overdubs her with an English-speaking narrator (subtitles–please!), but it’s still impressive to see just how much effort goes into preparing this dish.

Tags: cochineal, cooking, dye, fieldguidesinc, mendozas, mexico, oaxaca, rugs, wool

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