Don Isaac Ramos Padilla
Camelia Ramos Zamora
José Mancio
Weavers of Rebozos
"Of the thousand and one manifestations of Mexican textiles, the rebozo shawl woven on a back-strap loom is probably the most representative." Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art.

Weaving the rebozos
How to tie rebozos as wearable art

At the age of 84, Don Isaac has been weaving since he was 10 when he started to learn the trade from his family of weavers. Don Isaac rises at 5 am and works for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, to produce on average two rebozos a week. He does all the steps of the process himself - mixing the dyes, dyeing the cotton, setting up the warp with the thousands of strands, painting on the pattern, and the final weaving. He says, 'Mucho tiempo, poca ganancia' (so much time, so little profit). His rebozos garner a considerably higher price than the more standard ones found in markets around Malinalco.

The photo above right is the latest of many awards for Don Isaac Ramos Padilla. It is the Grand Premio (Grand Prize) for the 2008 32nd National Arte Popular Judged Art Show. There are few weavers in Mexico who have achieved this level of notoriety.

But it's all done with much patience and calm, as well as a huge love and devotion to his art. He and his daughter work with many known patterns - cacahuate, arco negro or palomitas. He also invents patterns, which he says simply pop into his head. Don Isaac and Camelia have access to the wonderful antique rebozos owned by the Franz Mayer Museum and are allowed to study them for ideas. The are both very concerned about the disappearance of this highly skilled art and are doing what they can to interest and train other family members in keeping up the tradition.

One interesting comment the maestro told me, is that until quite recently the rebozo was thought of as a symbol of purity and no self-respecting woman left the house without one. And, if a young man snatched a rebozo from a young woman, then the woman considered herself to belong to that man.

The quality of the pieces and the arduous work involved make them very costly. Their true value, however, is hard to estimate, not only in terms of the beauty of the work but because they constitute examples of an exquisite art which, thanks to the interest of these artisans, has not yet been lost.

The pueblo of Malinalco is one of Mexico's most important weaving centers for elaborate and elegant rebozos. The patterned rebozos are woven from cotton and/or silk and were formerly known as rebozos de bolita as the cotton came in balls rather than skeins or cones. They are used for more formal occasions and come in exquisite solid colors such as fantastic bright hues of red, green, orange or more subtle shades of violet and blue. They come in four lengths depending on their use, and the size of the women who will wear them: completo (often used to carry a baby on the back), 3/4 size or mediano, and small ones called ratoncitos (ideal to wear as scarves). There is also the very special rebozo de aroma which is black and often used as a shroud. The name comes from the fact that the black dye has a strong unpleasant smell so the dyed cotton is later soaked in a mixture of orange leaves, rose petals, sage, rosemary and other woodsy plant materials, all of which give the rebozo a long-lasting agreeable aroma.

What sets the rebozos from Malinalco, Mexico apart from shawls found in other countries is the very fine work of the endings called flecos, puntas or rapacejos. The finished rebozo is removed from the loom with a few feet of threads hanging from each end. The threads, 1,800 to over 5,000, are imaginatively and intricately worked into knotted patterns according to ancient designs. The most typical patterns are those with dolls, flowers, ducks, deer, or geometric designs. The work is almost exclusively done by women known as empuntadoras, and can take weeks or even months to complete.

There are only a handful of rebozo weavers left who use the ancient backstrap loom called a telar de cintura or telar de otate. Since they can only make one rebozo at a time, the work is costly and time consuming. But, it allows for originality in patterns and your rebozo is always one-of-a-kind when woven this way. Don Isaac Ramos Padilla and his daughter Sra. Camelia Ramos Zamora exhibited their work at Feria Maestros del Arte 2005. They use ancient designs and weave only on a pre-Hispanic backstrap loom. Their art has been transmitted through five generations.

Many of the Ramos' rebozos are done in a technique called ikat - a dying technique that allows the warp to be selectively colored before it is woven. A shrinking market and competition with industrially woven cloth has forced many weavers to stop their production of ikat rebozos as they are very time-consuming and therefore, the prices are higher than other rebozos.

The ikat process (see the series of photos below): The weaver pulls up several cotton threads of the warp, then taking thread, he/she winds the thread around the warp (about 1/4" to 1/2"). This is done over and over again in different locations of the warp until the entire warp has been "knotted" and is ready for dying.

After dying, the knots are removed, leaving undyed white areas. Several different ikat patterns are used. The location of the knots and the position of the warp on the loom determines the pattern.

The warp is then soaked in water for 20 minutes, after which, the water is wrung out. The damp warp is dyed by repeatedly submerging it in a hot dye bath for 20 minutes. Excess dye is removed by twisting a stick that has been inserted in the end of the warp. The ikat-dyed warp is stretched out to dry. Ikat threads alternate with solid threads on the loom. The warp must be frequently adjusted to assure that the ikat - dyed threads form the correct motif as it is being woven.

A good book on the subject is "Rebozos de la Coleccion de Robert Everts", co-edited by the Franz Mayer Museum and Artes de Mexico. My thanks to Barbara Magnus for researching and compiling this story.

Contact information:
Calle Guerrerom
Malinalco, Mexico
722 156 3636
xoxopastli@hotmail.com

Or contact Marianne Carlson at 01152 376 765 7485 or email mariannecarlson@gmail.com