Memory in your Hands: The Ceñidor Reinvented

Crescencio Tlilayatzi Xochitemol's name carries history, a living legacy from his ancestors: Tlilayatzi means black blanket in Nahuatl, and Xochitemol, sought-after flowers.

In Santa María Tlacatecpac, a neighborhood in Contla de Juan Cuamatzi, Tlaxcala, weaving has been a family livelihood for generations. Don Aurelio Tlilayatzi and Doña Francisca Xochitemol taught Crescencio the basics: weaving ceñidores.

The ceñidor (a traditional sash) was used for everything: from hard work in the fields and carrying heavy loads to December 12 ceremonies. It was a pillar of daily life, woven on a loom.

Don Aurelio and Doña Francisca taught Crescencio Tlilayatzi Xochitemol the basics: weaving, arranging threads, inserting threads, and checking. "The rest is your creativity," they told him. They gave him roots so he could fly.

"Why not expand the ceñidor, give it a jaspeado design?" Crescencio thought. That's where the idea began: to transform the sash into a rebozo, a huipil, a quechquemitl. Same tying technique, new size, new horizon.

Crescencio moved away from creating the ceñidor on a backstrap loom to using the jaspeado technique on a pedal loom. He took the geometric patterns of the traditional ceñidor and reinterpreted them on a larger scale, thereby creating an unprecedented fusion.

Gloria Xichipelma, Crescencio's mother, never said "you can't do it." She always said, "do it." She is the driving force, the experience of years past, the great support that underpins her son's innovation.

Crescencio Tlilayatzi Xochitemol was the pioneer who introduced this technique to Contla de Juan Cuamatzi. He took the basic ceñidor technique and scaled it up, creating a unique design school for rebozos, huipiles, and dresses.

"Everything is traditional, but without any repetition," Crescencio explains. His jaspeado patterns are born from the techniques of the ceñidor that his parents taught him, but each tie is unique, no design can be repeated. His philosophy is clear: honor without copying, transform without breaking anything.