Ancient Dreams

Archive for the ‘Travel Stories’ Category

VIDEO: 

THE ANCIENT COTTON FIBER ART OF MANABÍ PROVINCE, COASTAL ECUADOR

Preparing seed cotton, spinning it with a hand supported spindle, dyeing yarns with vegetable dyes, and weaving of bags and hammocks on an indigenous vertical loom is a coastal Ecuadorian fiber art that has been transmitted by peasant women from generation to generation for millennia.    Read the rest of this entry »

Hi fellow artisans and other interested folks who read Spanish. Please follow the link:

www.lahora.com.ec/frontEnd/main.php?idRegional=1&idSeccion=1016375

to read a nice article published in La Hora in Ecuador about this wonderful weaving family in Zapote, Manabí and my longstanding work with them documenting a disappearing 4000 year old cotton weaving tradition.

If you copy and paste the link and get redirected by La Hora to today’s items, submit it again and it should take you there.

Peace and love to all, especially the artisan mothers out there.

It seems that the Ecuadorian government under President Rafael Correa is interested in reclaiming traditional knowledge of its artisans, both in the present and in the past.  This is the first government in all of Ecuador’s history that has taken such an interest!  So, the four thousand year old cotton fiber tradition of Manabí Province in coastal Ecuador that I have been documenting since 1976, hopefully can now be rescued from obscurity with the help of the civic center Cuidad Alfaro, located in the city of Montecristi, Manabí.

At Cuidad Alfaro’s request, I travelled there this past March in order to introduce this cotton fiber tradition represented by Doña Luz and her daughter, Trinidad who is the last active practitioner of this millenarian fiber art.  Hopefully with the support of Cuidad Alfaro, which is planning to establish a “living” museum where 10 different key artisans of the Province can carry out their work, this spinning and weaving tradition will finally be recognized and valued.  So things are moving ahead and Trinidad and I have recruited some youngsters from the village of Zapote to learn and carry on the tradition. Trinidad’s 9 year old niece, Melina, is learning how to spin, and another older teenage niece, Catalina was persuaded to learn how to weave after seeing Trinidad and I discuss this ancient tradition on a local TV station.

Especially significant for me during this short, week long trip was to have the opportunity to witness and capture on video the very moment Melina learned how to spin.