Pictured here is Florencia Gabriel Rivera. She was referred to me by her sister. She is a handicrafts artisan; she weaves reeds into all sorts of useful goods: baskets, mats, tortilla baskets, ornamental wall hangings, etc. The blouse she wore is called a huanengo. It looks like a huipil and is worn only on occasions. She is also wearing a white delantal. She showed me some of her other blouses, pictured on the top row. A friend, Ariel, bought one of them from her. In the first picture you can see how the embroidered slip and the pleated skirt are worn. Before I found Florencia, this grandmother let me take her picture. What she is wearing is more like the day-to-day dress that you see throughout the region. She was wearing an embroidered blouse under the overblouse and an embroidered delantal. The town was clean and orderly. Lots of new construction was going on. The street paving seemed to be mostly complete. As I drove through the town it was surprising not to see graffiti painted on all the buildings; maybe that’s just a big city thing.
|