BY Leslie Mehren | April 7, 2011

A hybrid of old and new worlds

If poetry can be woven from extended lengths of handspun threads, then the rebozo is a sonnet to Mexico’s enduring national spirit. No other garment so eloquently symbolizes Mexico’s beauty, strength and resilience. The Japanese have their flowering kimonos, Americans our dented cowboy hats, but in Mexico the rebozo holds a special place of reverence and utility.

The rebozo worn throughout Mexico is the product of inevitable cultural cross-pollination. Its name is derived from the Spanish verb, arreborzarse, “to cover oneself.” Historians recognize the influence of shawls worn by early Spanish colonists, which were themselves derived from Persian and Indian shawls brought to Spain by the Moors. The traditional ikat rebozo patterns, called jaspe, first arrived in Mexico on the Manila galleons that crossed the seas carrying influences of Asian cultures. Today’s rebozos exemplify the assimilation and adaptation that distinguish Mexican culture, a beautiful hybrid of old and new worlds.

At its most simplistic, the rebozo is a handwoven shawl produced on a backstrap loom from handspun natural fibers. Stretching over a meter and a half in length and of varying widths, there is no single formula for what defines a rebozo. From Oaxaca to Michoacan, regional weaving styles provide great variety in materials, patterns, colors and fringe styles. Weaving villages like Santa Maria del Rio and Tenancingo compete for bragging rights as to where the finest examples can be found. Larger floor looms are employed by master weavers, who adeptly weave complex designs like the prized ikat caramelo rebozos made in Santa Maria del Rio. Near Tenancingo, you will find families of weavers collaborating with neighboring villages of empuntadoras, fringe-tying specialists. A single rebozo requires weeks, if not months, of steady effort to complete, and carries the knowledge and traditions of generations in its fabric.

Modern textile innovations introduced “artisela,” a rayon thread, which provides a more economic alternative to silk. While traditionalists and collectors favor the silk and cotton rebozos for their fine hands and lilting fringes, the artisela shawls can be found in a stunning array of colors and cost far less than the silk versions, which command prices into the thousands of dollars. Heirloom rebozos often include words and pictures that appear in the knotted fringes, marking a birth or marriage, or a declaration of love everlasting. Poetry is infused at the intersection of every warp and weft.

The rebozo is the ultimate multi-tasker, serving a woman in every phase of her life. A single rebozo can secure a child to her mother’s back, carry goods to market, gracefully drape the shoulders, or be plaited into long braids, its fringed ends fluttering in the breeze. Much like the Japanese kimono, a rebozo symbolizes feminine grace, seductively revealing a bare shoulder or tracing the sway of a hip in motion. The worn, faded rebozo that envelops a widow’s head could have once been the same deep black shawl she carried her children in. Like the most enduring aspects of Mexican culture, the rebozo speaks of life’s inevitable cycles and seasons.

What is less certain is whether the tradition of rebozo weaving and wearing will be sustained in contemporary Mexico. Already there are signs of its demise, despite the iconic place rebozos hold in Mexican society.  Becoming a master weaver demands decades of practice and apprenticeship. In the commercial fabricas, where treadle llooms can be heard ka-chugging away at deafening volume, the ages of the men at the looms will stretch well beyond sixty. Rebozo weaving requires skill, strength, an eye for detail, and ample patience. Finding young people wiling to devote their most active years to sustaining such a tradition-bound vocation is no simple task.

Recently, contemporary Mexican fashion designers have included classic rebozo patterns into handbags, shoes, jackets and even book covers. Adapting new patterns and broadening rebozos’ appeal to mass markets can assure a brighter future. There will always be a place for the rebozo at the heart of Mexican culture, and on the shoulders of every elegant senora, but its future is inevitably tied to the youngest Mexicans, many of whom were swaddled in rebozos as infants. Inspiring them to take up a loom of their own will be the ultimate confirmation of Mexico’s abiding love of its beautiful, colorful, interwoven identity.

Leslie Mehren has written for museums, auction houses and galleries in San Francisco and New York. Inspired by a lifetime of travel, she recently launched Anima Mundi, a unique source for people in search of authentic, handcrafted cross-cultural designs. Leslie lives with her family in Tiburon, California. To visit her website and blog, please go to http://shopanimamundi.wordpress.com/ and www.shopanimamundi.com