In octacatl, in machiyōtl: samplers of virtue and integrity

A few years after the Spanish conquest, Andrés de Olmos gathered proverbs and sayings as examples of graceful language, so that other evangelists could learn to speak Nahuatl with eloquence. He found that certain parts of the loom served to represent order and harmony in human relations. The tenter (octacatl), which keeps the width of the weaving steady, and the heddle (xiōtl), which controls the warp threads, were mentioned time and again in the old indigenous couplets. Cited together with the loom sticks was the sampler (machiyōtl), a woven pattern chart which guides an artist to create designs that are complex and beautiful. In the ancient oral tradition, loom and sampler became images of good fellowship.

Thanks to the generosity of the Fundación Alfredo Harp Helú, the MTO has put together one of the most important collections of this genre. It includes, among other extraordinary pieces, an early sampler of embroidery and drawn work inscribed in Nahuatl, which attests to the appropriation of European techniques by Mesoamerican textile artists. We also display a piece of fabric dating from the 19th century where the embroiderer added visual riddles to complete her verses about love and detachment from worldly concerns. The cross-stitched phrases on that sampler echo the words of wisdom transcribed by Olmos three hundred years earlier.

In addition to the samplers, the exhibit incorporates a series of quesquémeles (a closed cape-like women’s garment), blouses, napkins and bags where an inspiration in the samplers is evident. Figures that were executed with rigidity on school embroidery projects dated between 1840 and 1890 often appear modified or reinterpreted in utilitarian textiles, as if the proportions of a classical sculpture were adapted to a different taste in the hands of a local stone carver. The samplers themselves fostered the development of a uniquely Mexican style, where the logic of the pattern book as a hodgepodge of designs for the sake of reference was extended to entire garments, distinguished by their diversity and eclecticism.

Some huipiles from northern Oaxaca, where Chinantec women abandoned the geometric figures that had been woven by their grandmothers in favor of new animals, flowers and trees embroidered into startling random assemblages, can illustrate that style. These examples can serve as a bridge to introduce a second exhibit at the MTO, devoted to the 1960s, when the color scheme on local textiles exploded. Vibrant contrasts between shocking pink, neon green and burning orange brought backstrap looms into close kinship with the urban fashions of that decade.

By holding side by side two dissimilar shows, which may seem to contradict each other at first glance, we aim to induce reflection among visitors to the Museum. The poetic sophistication of metaphors recorded in Nahuatl in the sixteenth century, the technical virtuosity of embroidery samplers dating from the eighteen hundreds, and the chromatic stridency of huipiles made in the sixties may be viewed as parts of a sequence: they bear witness to the creativity and continuous blooming of Mexican cultures.