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| Language Group: |
Kaqchikel |
| Department: |
Sololá |
Patron Saint &
Festival Day: |
Santa Catarina - November 25 |
| Elevation: |
1585m |
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Santa Catarina Palopó is located on the western shore of picturesque Lake Atitlán, four kilometers from Panajachel. Inhabited since pre-Colombian times, the village formally sustained itself by fishing and farming. Since the ecologically ill-advised introduction of black bass into the lake as a game fish, men have turned to a variety of commercial pursuits and women have dedicated themselves more to the production and sale of textiles in Panajachel, Chichi and Antigua. |
Since the 1980s the huipil has undergone a radical evolution. The old style huipil, still woven today, is made of three backstrap woven panels on a red cotton base with narrow white and yellow warp stripes. Small, widely spaced geometric plant and animal figures are executed in the rare soumak technique, where the brocaded designs are built up with supplementary floating weft threads that are wrapped around alternate pairs of warps. A transitional style, mostly from the 1980s, still on the traditional base material, used the same soumak technique to create increasingly more solid bands of multicolor geometric patterns; one variation using solid bands between rows of the old style figures. The spectacular modern huipil used by a majority of women in the village today, features a completely brocaded surface of highly stylized geometric shapes in a restrained palette of blues, turquoises, purples and greens, with small touches of pink.
The traditional corte is a foot loom woven blue morga with occasional white weft stripes, joined without using a randa. Modern acrylic cortes, foot-loom woven in Sololá, have increasingly included more metallic threads, as well as jaspe stripes.
Both the traditional and modern style faja feature backstrap woven designs similar to those of their corresponding huipiles, while traditional red fajas are longer and wider than the modern blue-green belts. |
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The woman's liston (hair scarf) is first wrapped around the ponytail and then twisted turban-like over the head, protecting the nahual spot. While some women use a liston made of commercial satin or velvet, others use a woven scarf that often contains a great quantity of metallic thread.
Traditional cargadores (carrying cloths) are made of two rectangular backstrap woven panels of evenly spaced red and white warp-stripes, which are joined without a randa. The woman's ceremonial tzute has the same base cloth and format as the tzute cargador, with the addition of small, widely spaced old-style brocaded figures. New style tzute cargadores, with their cool-color palette, metallic threads and jaspe figures, complement the modern huipil, corte and liston. |
A significant percentage of men in Sta. Catarina continue to wear village traje, although it is more commonly used by older men and very young boys than by younger men, who generally prefer western-style clothing. The men's traje generally incorporates similar motifs and colors as the women's traje, the evolution of the brocades in the men's pants paralleling that of the huipiles. The complete traje includes a pair of mid-calf length backstrap woven pants, an un-brocaded red belt, and shirt, which is either backstrap woven in San Pedro la Laguna or commercially purchased (Chicago Bulls t-shirts are a favorite).
The changes in the huipiles of Santa Catarina Palopó are a unique example of a rapid, widespread change of fashion that redefine what is traditional costume into "antique" and modern categories.
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