The backstrap loom is an ancient loom used throughout Mexico and Meso-America to produce cotton and wool textiles. Tthe Amusgo women of Guerrero and Oaxaca are expert weavers. When you watch this video you can see the pains taking effort to create a single textile design used for a huipil (traditional garment). The brocade requires the placing of thread in the garments while it is in process of being loomed. Each thread is hand placed and them pressed into its location to form the pattern. these ancestral patterns are momorized and a counting method is used to assure its proper location in the garmentIn the background you can hear the amusgo language being spoken.
My project is to document the indigenous textiles of Mexico. To do this I travel to remote indigenous villages to photo and film the traditional textiles and festivals over 650 are now documented. There are over 60 different languages spoken in Mexico and I try to document all that I can reach. My home base is Mexico City. This films are part of the documentation project which is presented as a web museum at www.mexicantextiles.com . The indigenous cultures of Mexico will be brought to you in short but interesting video clips and on my blib.tv blog. Thanks for you interest. bob Freund
