Teotitlán del Valle

The name Teotitlan is Nahuatl and means land of the gods, while the Zapotec name, Xaguixe, means at the foot of the mountain. According to Wikipedia the village was established around 1465 and is considered one of the first Zapotec settlements in the area, and it was refounded as a Spanish village in 1527. It sits at about 1,670 metres in the foothills of the Sierra Juarez.

Most residents speak Zapotec, and the community has kept its language and culture. The 2005 census recorded about 5,600 people in the municipality.

Textiles are the main economic activity. Weaving here goes back at least to about 500 BCE, when artisans worked cotton and ixtle on backstrap looms, and the town paid tribute in woven goods to the Aztecs. Around 1535 a Dominican bishop introduced sheep and treadle looms, which allowed the production of large, heavy items such as rugs, serapes and blankets. The town later specialised in rugs.

Roughly 150 families are involved in weaving, and most work happens in family workshops on hand-operated looms. The wool comes from local sheep and goes through washing, carding, spinning and dyeing before weaving.

Traditional dyes include cochineal, indigo, needle bush, Brazilwood, Mexican marigold and a rock moss. Some workshops use chemical dyes instead. Designs may feature Zapotec and Mixtec glyphs and fretwork, as well as Navajo-style patterns, which Wikipedia notes is a contested issue. Contemporary designs include reproductions of works by artists such as Picasso, Miro, Matisse, Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo, and most designs are woven from the weaver's memory.

The main church, Preciosa Sangre de Cristo, is generally dated to the colonial period; one source gives 1581 to 1758 for its construction, while Mexico's INEGI compendium gives 1518. It was built on the site of a Zapotec temple, and remnants of the temple's foundation are visible. The facade is of cantera stone, and inside are traces of 16th-century decoration with pre-Hispanic motifs and many colonial statues of saints.

A small archaeological area lies beside the church, and the Community Museum, Balaa Xtee Guech Gulal, opened in 1995 with etched stones and ceramics.

Because most work is done in family workshops, many households welcome visitors to see the process of turning raw wool into a finished rug. Seeing the carding, spinning and dyeing steps in person gives a clearer sense of why hand-woven pieces vary so much in colour and pattern, and why natural dyes such as cochineal, which gives reds, and indigo, which gives blues, are valued by weavers.

The village is a short drive from Oaxaca City and is often combined with other stops in the valley, such as the Tule tree or Mitla. A private tour with a driver and guide lets visitors spend time in a workshop and hear how the dyes and looms work.