Weavers in Ahuiran - Michoacán, Mexico
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| License | CC Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives 3.0 Germany: You are free to use, copy, distribute and transmit the work or content in unchanged form for any legal and non-commercial purpose as long as the work is attributed to the author in the manner specified by the author or licensor. | |
| Identifiers | 10.3203/IWF/C-1762eng (DOI) | |
| IWF Signature | C 1762 | |
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| Production Year | 1989 |
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| IWF Technical Data | Film, 16 mm, LT, 603 m ; F, 55 1/2 min |
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Transcript: English(auto-generated)
01:00
San Mateo Agurán is five kilometres distant from the market town of Paracha. The farmstead of the Álvares Rodriguez family lies in the outskirts of the village. They're small farmers and the men do a little woodworking with timber from the communal woods. The women weave rivosos. Two of the daughters are currently working in the shoe factory.
01:26
Regina Rodriguez Pascual is the mother of seven daughters and a son, of whom several are married. Her husband spends most of his working hours outside the farm. Celia has come to her mother-in-law's house for the purpose of filming.
01:44
She's preparing the warp threads for a blue-black rivoso made of mercerized cotton.
02:00
This type of rivoso is a traditional garment, still worn today by the majority of the Parepecha women. The skeins of thin cotton are soaked in a solution containing starch
02:23
to make them resistant to the rough treatment during weaving. Daughter Margarita, a widow with four children, is starching the already warped threads for a rivoso made of acrylic wool.
03:47
Margarita hangs up the starched acrylic wool warp threads to dry between the warp beam and breast beam. These threads are much thicker than the cotton ones. In contrast to the warp threads
04:16
of acrylic wool, the cotton ones are beaten after starching. This is the only way to make
04:21
the starch penetrate the fibers. Margarita's daughter, Maria Eduviges, helps her.
07:13
Later that morning, Consuelo also comes over to her mother's yard. The women have met over here for the film shoot, but they often meet for weaving anyway.
07:54
The mother continues weaving an acrylic rivoso, which should be ready by the evening.
08:30
Consuelo inquires about the three-month-old son of ethnologist Ulrika Kaiser.
08:49
Margarita starts to warp the warp threads for another acrylic rivoso. The threads are knotted together according to the later warp rib pattern. The white thread is of cotton.
10:51
The women repeatedly ask their daughters to fetch new implements from home.
11:07
Breaking the thread serves to check its degree of toughness. The cotton has to be beaten until breaking it produces only clean tearing points.
12:46
Celia beats the threads together to prevent them sticking to one another.
14:30
Margarita has found a place to sit in the upper part of the farm area. In the shade of the trees, she's weaving a rivoso out of acrylic wool. The farm women like this place of seclusion. Ulrika takes this opportunity to speak to Margarita about her work.
18:17
Celia and her niece bring the warping spindles for the
19:05
starched cotton and the blue artificial silk for warping the warp threads. Meanwhile, the already warped and starched warp threads of the acrylic wool rivosos are being sun dried.
20:46
A second foot for the spindles is brought over.
21:29
A cotton rivoso is woven from very fine black and white cotton threads
21:40
and thin blue artificial silk or bead yarn. The black and blue threads of the other rivosos are made of acrylic wool and are correspondingly thicker. In her kitchen,
22:31
Candelaria Estrada Silva is getting ready to starch cotton warp threads for white cotton cloths known as servietas. Instead of chemical agents, they still use atole blanco,
22:43
a beverage made of cornmeal and water. In Arguiran, they used to work mainly with white cotton. The blue-black rivosos were traditionally made in the nearby market town of Paracho. The women of Arguiran took over this product at the beginning of this century,
23:03
but they are still sold in Paracho. The white cotton yarn has to be beaten only a few times
24:23
after starching. Margarita is preparing to warp the threads for a cotton rivoso.
26:47
The previous day, Celia hadn't finished warping the threads for the cotton rivoso.
27:06
Margarita uses thick yarn to fix small bundles of warp threads to the warp beam.
27:24
The breast beam is then pushed through the loops of the warp threads. Margarita immediately begins attaching the single warp threads to the heddle. This work is very time consuming, using the thin yarn of the cotton rivosos.
30:41
After warping, the threads are thus formed to ensure that the threads stay crossed.
32:31
With a provisional separating beam in place, Maria Eduficius guides a thread through the shed to secure the crossing of the warp thread.
32:55
Celia ties the warp threads to the warp beam.
33:38
The warp beam is drawn downwards to facilitate removal of the provisional separating beam.
33:50
The technique of backstrap weaving allows the women to interrupt their work at any time, so Margarita had packed up her weaving equipment the previous evening, although she had not finished loading the heddle. After completing this task the following morning,
34:07
she was able to begin weaving. Celia winds the weft thread onto a black stone.
34:25
The warp threads are wrapped around the breast beam and another bar to the length desired for the fringes. The provisional separating beam is replaced.
36:04
The mercerized non-starched weft thread is rolled through the open shed. Margarita uses a candle stump to rub the threads to make them slide more easily and prevent the warp threads
36:24
from fraying. Margarita has the weft thread roll through the same shed several times.
37:35
This thicker weft insertion is part of the selvage pattern of the rivoso.
38:34
Paracho is the trading center of the Sierra Porepecha. Every Sunday a big market is held
38:41
where the rivosos are also traditionally put up for sale.
39:21
The length and patterning of the fringes are quality attributes of the rivosos. The tradeswomen of Paracho offer mainly acrylic wool rivosos.
39:41
The cotton rivosos are, as a rule, contracted out to customers' orders. Then they bring the more expensive material to the weaving women at Awiran. Several of the women at Awiran have specialized in trading rivosos themselves. Nevertheless, there's nothing to prevent the weavers from offering their products directly
40:02
at the Paracho market. They have no permanent market stores and are only present at the opening of the market.
41:22
the weft threads.
43:08
Candelaria had made the fringe borders of acrylic yarn with the help of a vertical bar loom.
44:23
Margarita has spent the last three days weaving a cotton rivoso without interruption. There's not much still to be done.
44:41
As at the beginning, stripes of colored yarn are woven in here at the end too as a selvage pattern. Consuelo is braiding the fringes of an acrylic rivoso.
45:35
The white threads will be cut off later.
46:40
Margarita removes the heddle bean.
47:01
Sometimes a piece of paper is used to compensate for uneven thread tension.
48:30
Margarita starts to braid the fringes on the cotton rivoso. It will take her five days in all.
49:02
The difference in quality between the fine cotton rivoso on the left and the coarser acrylic rivoso on the right is obvious to the eye.
49:50
The other day, in two days, there was a day of rivoso and the rest of the rivoso.
50:02
When one of the rivos came, it wasn't good enough for her to see what was going on with the rivoso. The rivoso has a little bit of pressure for the cotton rivoso. The rivoso has a little bit of pressure for the cotton rivoso.
51:02
The rivoso has a little bit of pressure for the cotton rivoso.
51:45
Oh