RMLApril 12
Good Friday: Of the sixty women that attended the ceremonies, five were wearing traditional clothing. All were wearing long earrings and were bare foot. Half were wearing black wraps, the rest wore shawls, and a few others wore colored wraps or towels. The three mestizas wore dresses, shoes, a white wrap or a shawl.
RMLApril 15
They build a platform in the trees for their fowl (chicken and turkeys). They put a stick with notches (sometimes without notches) as a ladder. They make pig troughs—a log partly hollowed out—where they put the water or food.
Various people have platforms where they put out their clothing to dry. Others have platforms without legs for sleeping or to move outside for whatever reason. For sleeping they put a straw mat over the platform. Others sleep on platforms of split logs. These are lashed to an armature with tall legs. When they make a door that leads outside, for example, they stick the doorjamb in a convenient hole in a rock (perhaps they work the rock)-- that’s how it seems. One sees the evolution of this idea in the houses: The doors of many houses rest on the base of an upside down bottle.
Houses in San Martín
When young men carry wood they place leaves between their backs and the wood in order to keep their shirts clean (according to Silvestre). Hemp rope is used to bundle the fireweed and for the band they put across the forehead [a tumpline].
Little boy from Soyaltepec carrying wood
~April 15
Women adorn their hair with gardenias, either behind each ear or four or five placed as a crown on the back of the head. Some elder women do so, similar to some of the younger women. Sometimes the women do not discard the flowers that have dried out, since the dried flowers also serve as ornaments. They are seemingly shaped like cockroaches and project at right angles from the head. The young men cut flowers in the evening when they are still open. I saw a woman with natural earrings—a plant with berries the color of gold, with nothing more than placing the stem in an opening and giving it a twist. The berries acted as pendulums.
Leonardo RonquilloApril 16
A huipil for a three-year-old girl costs thirty-five pesos.
Chinantec Woman Weaving
Chinantec Woman Weaving
RMLApril 17
When it’s hot, women take off their huipil if they are inside, but put them on when they leave the house. Older women can sit outside their houses without putting on their huipiles.
Plácido Cecilio
Women use the oil of mamey seeds for their hair. It stimulates hair growth. In contrast, brilliantine makes hair fall out. Brilliantine is “hot” (“caliente”) and zapotes are “cold” (“frio”).
Amador Servín
The zapote is “hot” (“caliente”), which is why it is used in rainy season. Women put it on after bathing. Now few people use it. They buy potato oil that is perfumed. The zapote has no perfume.
Melchor García, Silvestre Cuevas
Many people still use the oil of the zapote. It is “cold” (“frio”). It is used throughout the year. It has an attractive perfume. Young girls use it a lot when they are courting.
The wife of Leonardo Ronquillo does not bring a gourd to the well, but instead uses a metal utensil.
The wife of Guadalupe Ronquillo carrying water
Amador Servín
The grinding stones (metates) that people use are from western Oaxaca. The griddles are from Huatutla, priced at two pesos.
Large clay pots come from Tlacotalpan.
Melchor GarcíaApril 19
Some girls switch from huipiles to dresses, or from dresses to huipiles, as they wish.
~April 23
The designs of [or woven into] huipiles are spontaneous.
Silvestre CuevasApril 25
The candlestick made for a novena (a nine day funerary ritual) is one meter tall. It’s a wooden stick with the bark stripped off. The center of the end is hollowed out with four grooves on the side so the candle can go in easily. Then the end is tied with cloth.
Angel FlorentinoApril 25
Some girls have abandoned the huipil, others change (their huipiles for dresses) according to their whim
Ojitlán; Levels of change
~April 26
The leaves of corn are saved in the house to use as starter for the fire (or stove).
Ambrosio JiménezApril 27
A huipil costs seventy pesos. It takes two to three days to dye it, and fifteen days to embroider. A woman has two huipiles to go out in, and three for work (sometimes two). A huipil lasts for three years.
Silvestre CuevasApril 28
A woman has two huipiles to go out on the town and three for work. A wife requests a new huipil either before New Year, [the fiesta of] San Martín, or Holy Week.
Five years ago no one wore pants. The schoolteacher, who ordered all boys to wear pants, brought about the change. A few years ago a hat was better made and cheaper. There is nobody who wears both shorts and shoes. Many people do not like sandals because they hurt your feet. Everyone wears sandals to work, as protection against thorns, but after work they take them off and go around barefoot.
If someone wears pants, shoes, etc. and does not know how to speak Spanish, the people laugh. He is “an embarrassment” (“una vergüenza”). But people who can speak Spanish can wear shorts without shame. Many who pass through here, in addition to the authorities, wear pants. It’s a factor in their “competition” (“competición”). Silvestre is not going to change [clothing], and it does not matter what his friends say. Shorts are cooler. The price of shorts can be as high as the cost of pants. Everything depends on the cloth. Many years ago, when a town political leader and two deputies were going to go to Oaxaca for a political conference, the leader told the deputies that they had to buy pants, because it would be an embarrassment for him to go around with them dressed in shorts.
The deputies were Camilo Jiménez and the father of Melchor García, Pedro García.
Office (in Temazcal); the people of San Martín waiting for their pay
Amador Servín
He [Arcadio] wore shorts when he came to work in San Martín, but then changed to pants. Shorts get dirty too easily on account of being white.
An old man planting
Ambrosio JiménezMay 3
He prefers a dress to a huipil because it costs less, though his wife still wears a huipil.
Ruperto Jiménez
He agrees with Ambrosio. Many women do not want to wear dresses because they look so ugly when they are pregnant. “When they are standing in the sun they see the shadow of their belly on the ground” (“Cuando estan paradas en el sol aún se ve la sombra de la barriga en el suelo”). In addition, there are many who don’t want to wear dresses because there is no one in San Martín who knows how to sew or cut cloth well.
Mazatecs, Chinantecs, Highlanders? [Tuxtepec]
RMLMay 4
For the gathering [work party] of Leonardo Ronquillo, only three men wore shorts (all were elders). Of the 26, four wore shoes, eight worked bare foot, and everyone else wore sandals. In the work party of Vicente Zacarías, a poorer man, the percentages of shorts and sandals were higher.
Silvestre, Flavio, Antonio [at the planting of Leonardo Ronquillo].
See also: Work party; the planting of Ronquillo.
Leonardo RonquilloMay 7
Almost all the women with gold teeth have them by necessity and not for adornment.
Señora TorresMay 8
Huipil @ $100.
Two dozen coins @ $36.
Ribbons @ $9.
Ticking @ $8.
Earrings @ $8.
Belt @ $3.
Pins @ 50 centavos
Total: $164.50
Gold earrings cost $50-$60.
RMLMay 3
In order to protect the oil lamp from the breeze they put a covering (a little piece of wood) on the pole where they hang it.
Silvestre CuevasMay 30
There is no division of labor when it comes to weaving bags. The thread is [made] of jute. There is very little of this material now in San Martín. One can also use the bark of the jomote (unknown plant). The hook that Camilo Jiménez has to hang the cloth for children is very curved—it’s probably a root.