When Danitza Willka Espinosa learned to weave, her mother shared this local belief with her: As two weavers face each other and toss yarn back and forth to create the warp, no one is allowed to enter the house unless they first bring the weavers a tiny stone. Since stones last a long time, it is believed that this will ensure the weavers don’t run out of thread before they complete the warp.
Danitza credits her mother with inspiring her to weave. “I wanted to weave because my mom knew how,” Danitza says. “I watched her weave since I was a child and wanted to be like her. I would always be thinking about weaving and eventually asked my mom to teach me.”
Luz Mery León Ccallo also learned to weave from her mother. “I used to live with my mom and wanted to help her out financially, so she taught me to weave.”
Both Danitza and Luz are young weavers from Pitumarca, a community high in the mountains of Peru that is known for its fine, complex textiles. Pitumarca weavers are masters of complementary and supplementary warp-faced weave, as well as other techniques thousands of years old. They are probably best known for their revival of ticlla, a discontinuous warp and weft technique that existed only in pre-Columbian Andean communities. It’s no wonder that Pitumarca is often referred to as the “textile capital of the Andes.”
Despite the community’s proud textile heritage, continuation of its ancient traditions has had its challenges. “In my village, the younger generation is losing touch with their traditional sense of identity,” Danitza explains. “They do not want to dress in traditional clothing nor participate in traditional customs. They are ashamed of speaking their native language.”
But things are changing, she adds, with the help of the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC). She and Luz are part of the Young Weavers program, an ATA-sponsored effort by CTTC to encourage the preservation of traditional textile techniques well into the future. “I get motivated by CTTC to research the meaning behind traditional woven designs, and I’m learning lots of interesting things,” Danitza says.
One thing that interests her is the use of natural dyes, a practice that her community’s younger generation is helping to revive. “My mother did not know how to dye with natural plants,” Danitza says. She describes how she has learned to use flowers from a tree to obtain a yellow dye and chilca (Baccharis dracunculifolia), which grows along riverbeds, to get green. “I prefer to wear my clothes designed and dyed by me. I want to design modern clothing made from alpaca fiber.”
Danitza already knows how to weave many traditional designs such as pumac maki (puma paw), llama sillu (llama hoof), rosas tika (rose flowers), papa tika (potato flower), warmi (woman), and q’enti (hummingbird). “Out of these designs, I like to weave llama sillu because it gives the fabric a special look. Also, I like to do rosas tiki and papa tiki. They are delicate designs.”
Luz, who is six years younger than Danitza, is just beginning to learn about dyeing and how to create the traditional designs. “I began to weave making designs such as q’enqo (zigzag) and ch’uro (small insect). Those have a nice combination of colors,” she says.
All of these designs are created using the traditional backstrap loom. “Our ancestors and grandparents wove on backstrap looms,” says Luz. “For this reason, I want to continue the tradition. Weaving on an industrial loom is not natural. Weaving manually is more interesting, and the designs come out better.”
Danitza agrees. “I do not like to weave on an industrial loom. Using the manual loom gives me more creative freedom.”
Much of the yarn used for weaving is handspun. According to Danitza, their ancestors spun finer or thicker threads depending on what was needed. The thicker threads were used for blankets and sacks. The fine threads were used for weaving mantas that were worn for parties to show off the maker’s spinning and weaving skills.
“My mom spins black and white wool to make fine thread,” says Luz. “With it, we weave bands, bracelets, scarves, and senqapas (finishes to protect woven fabric edges).”
It’s clear that weaving is an important part of both Luz and Danitza’s lives. “I am happy weaving,” says Luz. “I memorize the designs that I learn. My eyes and hands work together.”
“I do not have the words to explain the feeling that weaving produces in me,” adds Danitza. “I want to have all my house filled with woven fabrics. I put all my inspiration into weaving. I weave with my heart.”
Translation provided by Flora Galván
Top photo: A young child in Pitumarca joins her elders while they weave.
