The handmade stuffeed wool animals made by Marcela Hernández Mendez are from the village of San Cristobal de las Casas, in the central highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. Though Chiapas boasts the three largest hydroelectric dams in the country, it is the poorest state in Mexico, and most of the state’s inhabitants live without electricity or running water.

Despite this extreme poverty, this area is rich in indigenous culture, natural beauty and traditional crafts. Each item is unique and made with natural, hand-spun wool shorn from local, sustainably raised sheep. Weaving and embroidering textiles is a tradition in this region that decends from the ancient Mayan people. Most traditional clothing worn in Chiapas today is still made from wool.

They get the wool from their own sheep and clean it, wash it and card it, then they spin it and dye it. Only then the wool is ready to be woven in a back strap loom and then the animals are shaped and stuffed.

Marcela's craft was born when weavers decided to make their children toys with the wool leftovers they had. They made them stuffed sheep and donkeys. Soon after they began to sell the animals and so, costumers preferences and suggestions encouraged the weavers to make different animals like cats, dogs, elephants and so on and to use chemical dyes to get bolder colors.

Chiapas lies in the south of Mexico. The largest ethnic group in Chiapas is the Tzotzil who number about 200,000 people, living in scattered hamlets in the mountains. Alhough the Tzotzils are financially poor, many aspects of their society and culture are worthy of our attention. One of these aspects is the unique way in which the women in the villages care for their sheep, and their philosophy about these animals and their woollen souls.

Dramatic changes have been observed during the last 30 years in the countryside of Mexico. What we used to see as the romantic view of a smallholder farmer caring for a bunch of cattle, sheep and goats is no longer a part of the landscape. The original multipurpose and diversified farm has given way to specialised livestock operations that use high technology and high external inputs. This seems to be the only way to survive the challenges of the new globalised millennium. But at the same time, a different concept of animal husbandry undertaken by Tzotzil shepherdesses shows that the old romantic ways can also be very efficient and productive. Tzotzil women have preserved their local breeds of wool sheep at a time when global markets are shifting production goals into uniform, standardised outputs.

First of all, sheep are part of the culture of the Tzotzils; since they are sacred animals protected by the local religion, it is forbidden to hurt, to kill or to eat them. Secondly, they are also the exclusive responsibility of women, who take every decision over any issue related to these animals and also keep and manage any money derived from their sheep. The Tzotzils believe that every person has an ‘animal companion’ who suffers the same fate as his or her soul mate. When a person is ill or dies so does his or her animal companion. Even when most animal companions are wild animals, it is recognised that sheep can be the secondary soul mates of shamans and healers, and this is the reason for not hurting or killing them. However, it is only sheep that are sacred, and cows, horses or pigs are just domestic animals for the Tzotzils, who raise them, kill them, eat them, or sell them as needed.

Contact information:
967 118 5906
renato_M_92@hotmail.com

Or contact Marianne Carlson at (from the US) 01152 376 765 7485 or email mariannecarlson@gmail.com.