Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker As a newbie to Mexico on one of my first trips to Oaxaca I was captivated by huge swaths of cloth almost entirely covered in embroidery I know the time and torn-up fingertips necessary to do this kind of needlework This was how I met Tenango embroidery for the first time I assumed that this cloth I saw was from Oaxaca given the location of the market and the state’s reputation for handcrafts Tenango embroidery isn’t from Oaxaca at all but from a small region on the Hidalgo-Puebla border home to an Otomí (or hñuhñu) community largely unknown to the rest of Mexico and completely unknown to the world Tenango folk art is named after Tenango de Doria a municipality in Hidalgo right on the border with Puebla Otomí artisans practicing this craft can be found further afield in both states While some artisans make and embroider ready-to-use items like shirts others simply embroider raw cloth for sale This region is part of the Sierra Madre Oriental a rugged mountainous area that receives significant rainfall because of its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico images of which dominate Tenango embroidery with roads on steep mountainsides often getting washed out but the isolation the terrain provided helped protect Otomí heritage over the centuries and several pre-Hispanic religious beliefs survive The Otomí are one of Mexico’s larger indigenous communities they are scattered in communities in eight states and Mexico City There are cultural differences among Otomí groups with Tenango embroidery done only in eastern Mexico simplified from what had been done here for centuries drought decimated the subsistence agriculture of the area in the 1960s and locals needed a new form of income to survive The original idea was to make the traditional blouses with pepanado embroidery but they are too time-consuming and would drive the price too high So embroidery floss is instead drawn back and forth over the area to be colored in with almost all the floss on the visible side stitches are arranged in stripe-like patterns Design elements are highly stylized — static flora and fauna inspired by both domestic and wild plants and animals such as chickens The figures are not meant to be realistic and are often done in bright colors such as yellows but Tenango’s economic success means that a few men have picked it up as well Although the style is less involved than pepanado A good bedspread can take up to six years to make such embroidery does not bring in very much money The worst off must rely on selling to traveling middlemen who sometimes obtain pieces only by bartering food Some embroiderers can do better because they bought sewing machines This allows them to create finished products such as clothing items which fetch better prices than embroidery on cloth alone Although the designs have not changed much since the 1960s the range of products it is found on has widened now including many modern clothing items and even footwear Traditional and nontraditional products can be found for sale in most parts of Mexico especially in tourist areas — everywhere from street markets to luxury shops state and local authorities have attributed Tenango embroidery to a woman named Josefina José Tavera who lived in the community of San Nicolás near Tenango and died in May she invented it because in 1960 she was a single mother who needed money to care for her children She drew the animals and plants around her embroidered them and began selling in Pahuatlán Since it was never registered with trademark authorities, it is folk art under Mexican law. Foreign designers such as Carolina Herrera and Hermès have used the designs in some of their product lines, with controversies arising as late as 2019 especially those done by indigenous groups prompted the Mexican government to change the law to require those using such designs to identify them as such There are a few Otomí artisans and businesses that have worked to take advantage of interest in these designs including on modern clothing and home items One of these is Tonani Lirio de los Valles The business is in the regional commercial city of Tulancingo, Hidalgo, but the family that runs it is from the Tenango region. They design clothing and home items and work with up to around 100 embroiderers from their home region when business is good. They have a Facebook page and are listed with the prestigious Feria Maestros del Arte in Chapala One artisan who does the embroidery style on more traditional objects is Inocencio Pérez Iturbide. His fine work has caught the attention of the prestigious Feria and is included in their online catalogue One unusual fusion of local crafts is wall hangings that combine embroidered panels with locally made amate bark paper. Work of this kind is made by artisans such as Leobardo Espíritu Rocha and worth a look Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 17 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture. She publishes a blog called Creative Hands of Mexico and her first book, Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta , was published last year Her culture blog appears regularly on Mexico News Daily ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Mexico’s Culture Secretariat is jealously guarding traditional Mexican designs from being used by international fashion brands Culture Secretary Alejandra Frausto sent a letter Friday to the French brand Louis Vuitton over the latter’s use of indigenous Mexican patterns for a very expensive chair The letter notes that in Vuitton’s collection Dolls by Raw Edges one particular chair uses embroidery patterns that are intellectual property of the indigenous Otomí community of Tenango de Doria Frausto asked if Louis Vuitton tried to contact the community and if it has their permission to use the designs “Each piece is unique and unrepeatable,” the letter reads it is the result of the continuity of the work of many generations who transmit knowledge uses embroidered images of multicolored animals which are typical to Tenango de Doria the chair had been taken down from Louis Vuitton’s website and social media pages Frausto invited the French company to work with the indigenous communities to agree on “direct and concrete benefits for all parties” and “give the communities the recognition they deserve.” In June, Frausto sent a similar letter to the brand Carolina Herrera over its collection Resort 2020 which the culture secretary said constituted cultural appropriation of indigenous designs Resort 2020 was inspired by Mexican handicrafts and seeks to evoke a sunrise in Tulum Frausto’s letter to Carolina Herrera asked for “an explanation of the use of indigenous designs and embroidery,” the origin of which Carolina Herrera creative director Wes Gordon said the collection sought to respectfully pay homage to the “brilliant and diverse handicraft work” of Mexico and celebrate the brand’s Latin American origins Source: Univisión (sp)