Yucatan Mayan embroidery documents the defense of this ancient wisdom

Mayan embroidery is an art that has been passed down from generation to generation in the Yucatan Peninsula. In each stitch, family memories, stories of the land and the worldview of a people that have kept alive one of the most authentic expressions of the country are intertwined.

Testimony of the importance of this tradition is the book The Mayan embroidery of Yucatán: Living heritage, extensive historical, anthropological and technical research, with a community participation process that recognizes the creativity and skill of embroiderers as authors, teachers and bearers of the textile knowledge that has given them identity.

The text presents the voices that have known how to link the everyday with the sacred, and the ancestral with the contemporary, such as Zelmy Domínguez, from Tekit; Mayra Patricia Chí Pérez, from the community of San José Oriente, Hoctún; Imelda Cocom, from Tekax, and María Dalila Casanova Ferráez, from Muna, among others.

“For me, heritage is an inheritance. But first of all it is knowledge that our ancestors, grandmothers, mothers and fathers leave us, and it is part of our identity. It is a legacy of memory for me,” shares Zelmy Domínguez.

The artisan Imelda Cocom expresses that with professionalization they can “learn more from other embroiderers,” and thereby strengthen their community in the workplace. “We are several embroiderers who, now it depends on what we do, we will be able to help support our home. So, yes, the truth is I am very happy, with great enthusiasm.”

“Well, the truth is I feel very happy because I always said: ‘I don’t know anything, I’m nobody, or nothing’, and for them to say: ‘no, because these stitches that you know are worth a lot’, and that they are putting them together, because there are many stitches that are being lost, and that we are teaching others, it gives me joy. When someone comes and tells me: ‘I already learned this stitch’, it fills me with joy, it fills me with joy to be part of it,” María Dalila comments in the book Casanova Ferráez.

Edited by the Secretariat of Culture and the Arts (Sedeculta) in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) and the Banorte Foundation, the central theme of the book is the Mayan Embroidery Safeguard Plan, based on community diagnoses and regional exchanges, to promote its preservation as intangible cultural heritage of the state of Yucatán.

More than 100 actions

The publication presents axes of action such as documentation, preservation, transmission, fair trade, gender, education and visibility, among others, which make up a roadmap with more than 100 actions to ensure the continuity of this living practice.

It also includes the milestone that represented the certification of more than 200 embroiderers as master trainers and the creation of the State Council of Embroiderers, decisive steps towards professionalization, cultural governance and the appreciation of all knowledge for artisan communities.

The volume, in addition to documenting the meaning of embroidery, analyzes its ancestral techniques, the evolution of stitches, the technological transition and the contemporary tension between artisanal production and commercialization, highlighting the importance of fair trade that dignifies the work of the Mayans.

As to The Mayan embroidery of Yucatán: Living heritage, Patricia Martín Briceño, head of Sedeculta, highlights that it is a document of

first quality that “brings together the voice, technique, history and sensitivity of more than 300 embroiderers who participated in the Safeguard Plan.” This project seeks to ensure that “Mayan embroidery at some point also be declared intangible cultural heritage of humanity because it is ancestral knowledge, and the embroiderers are in charge of preserving it.”

He considers the book to be a living experience that can inspire other communities to replicate “this model of organization, consultation and decision-making.”

He adds: “To talk about Mayan embroidery in Yucatán is to talk about identity, memory and cultural continuity, but it is also to talk about autonomy, opportunity and economic freedom for Mayan women. This is more than a book, it is a program, a project that goes beyond any administration, since it is about the lives of the embroiderers, the economy and our living heritage throughout the country. It is a clear message that the safeguarding of cultural heritage is only possible when it is directed by those who create it.”

Professionalization and certification

In the presentation of this project at Original: Mexican Textile Art Meeting, promoter and textile specialist Silvia Terán emphasized the importance of the professionalization of embroiderers, because there are young people who like embroidery, but want to have a career, so now they have this alternative for the future.

He recalled that a year ago the certification was given to 200 embroiderers, which was an incentive, because they deserve to have their activity recognized professionally. He added that the Safeguard Plan aims for basic education schools to offer the subject of embroidery and to know the historical context of this ancestral art.

The representative of UNESCO in Mexico, Andrés Morales Arciniegas, in his text included in the book points out that The Mayan embroidery of Yucatán: Living heritage It is the result of the tireless work of the community of embroiderers in that region.

“We have collaborated with nearly half a thousand embroiderers through the Embroidery in Community program, with the purpose of strengthening their socioeconomic capacities and guaranteeing the rights of women artisans by safeguarding one of the most significant cultural manifestations of their heritage.”

the book The Mayan embroidery of Yucatán: Living heritage It will also be presented on January 22 in Yucatán, with the presence of Governor Joaquín Díaz Mena.