For centuries, Mexico has been dyed the carmine red grown in nopal

The red of the cochineal has dyed textiles, papers and furniture for centuries with its fiery, bright and saturated tone, as documented in the catalog Mexican red: The grana cochineal in art, which was published by the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature.

In Mexico, the cactus parasite called grana cochineal or fine cochineal continues to be cultivated, as well as the cactus that feeds the insect, to extract carminic acid when they crush the already dried body of the female, a material to which they add substances of different acidities to create bright, saturated, rich tones, ranging from faint pink to intense purple.

The Grana Cochinilla Nocheztlicalli Ecological Museum, according to its founder, Catalina Yolanda López Márquez, has a greenhouse where organic cactus leaves with insect babies can be seen hanging. There the process of obtaining the color and its different shades is demonstrated and how the threads are dyed to make the wool rugs.

The founder of that space highlighted how important it is to have the cactus orchard in good condition, because there the infestation stage takes place, where the main thing is to put the insects on the cactus, so that they begin to feed and in 70 days they must monitor that there are no predators.

The ecological center of Nocheztlicalli allows you to understand the process of cultivation of the grana from the preparation of the nopal, until its removal from the stalks, as well as the traditional grinding in metate to, finally, produce the reddish pigment.

According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Oaxaca, Querétaro, Guanajuato and Morelos lead the 15 states of the country that produce cochineal.