Texto 2020 interview with Don Habacuc Avedano of Mexican Dreamweavers

Mexican Dreamweavers is a reverse migration project of La Abogada del Pueblo (www.laabogadadelpueblo.org) which provides legal representation to undocumented immigrants in the US and helps indigenous artisans remain in Mexico and continue their traditions, rather than making the treacherous trip to El Norte to do menial labor. The project includes Mixtec cooperative of weavers and dyers from Pinotepa de Don Luis Oaxaca. The men dye the cotton threads with the ancestral technique of snail dye - in danger of extinction - and one of the three sacred colors of Mexico; while the women use back strap loom to create huipiles, posohuancos, rebozos, pillows, rugs, napkins, bedspreads, purses and bags. The project has a strong educational component with a campaign to save tixinda called "Here we don't eat Cocktail de Caracol”, a program of environmental awareness with restaurants, hotels and local communities. Mexican Dreamweavers presented two documentary films about the endangered purple dye and traditional weavings, created in a remote mountain village in Oaxaca-- Pinotepa de Don Luis. Tintes y Colorantes de la Costa (Dyes and Colors of the Coast) portrays the life of 74 year old Habacuc Avendano, the oldest of the Mixtec "tintoreros", or dyers. It follows Habacuc as he travels to the rocky Oaxacan coastline to milk their sacred purple dye "tixinda" from a small matriarchal snail, that lives in the seaside precipices. He describes the dangers these dyers face from the huge ocean waves and the endangerment of tixinda due to poaching, which also endangers the traditional weavings done by the women in their village, prized by museums and collectors. Los Posohuancos follows the Mixtec weaver Margarita Avendano, who was the President of the Tixinda Weaving Cooperative until her recent passing.

TEXTO 2020 was our first global gathering honouring 45 heritage textile artists and creatives from 23 countries during February 2020 in Casa Pedregal, México City.
For more information about TEXTO 2020 and the subsequent global gatherings please visit www.xtant.io and or follow us on @_xtant.io

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