Before the Spanish invasion in the sixteenth century, the Indigenous peoples of what is now Latin America produced a wide variety of complex patterned textiles including openwork that played important roles in their social, cultural, and religious lives. While they inarguably imported many ills, Spanish colonizers also introduced European textiles, including needle and bobbin laces. Scholars have suggested that many Indigenous people appreciated these intricate and labor-intensive fabrics which corresponded with their own systems of value. The manufacture of traditional textiles continued after colonization, and the importation of European textiles—including lace—prompted the establishment of new local industries and introduced novel design elements into long-established weaving traditions. In nineteenth- and twentieth-century Mexico, lace adorned European-style women’s clothing and became a distinctive element of flamenco dress. In parts of the Andes, including in the Chancay valley in Perú, weavers still specialize in openwork techniques and local textile production continues to reflect centuries-old preferences for fibers, dyes, colors, and designs.

This interactive, developed by Bard Graduate Center students, focuses on three aspects of textiles produced and worn in the Andes and New Spain: Chancay gauzes that illustrate pre-colonial lace-like openwork weaving; laces depicted in casta paintings in New Spain and Perú; and Andean textiles known as cumbi that demonstrate the influence of European lace on Indigenous design. 

Developed by Mary Adeogun, Kenna Libes, Maura Tangum, and Zoe Volpa.

Beltrán-Rubio, Laura. Lecture at Bard Graduate Center for 473. Threads of Power seminar. October 18, 2021. See Threads of Power: Lace from the Textilmuseum St. Gallen exhibition catalogue essay for more.

Clark, Bonnie Jean and Lila M. O’Neale. “Textile Periods in Ancient Peru III: The Gauze Weaves.” Master’s thesis, University of California-Berkeley, 1948. https://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/anthpubs/search?all=&subjtext=Technology%2D%2DTextile+industry+and+fabrics&subjectid=3825&item=4.

Cortéz, Vicente. “Arte Chancay: Reconstrucción Ritual Del Mundo.” En Líneas Generales, no. 3 – 4 (February 2021): 8-25. https://doi.org/10.26439/en.lineas.generales2020.n3-4.5080. 

Dumbarton Oaks. “All T’oqapu Tunic.” Accessed December 9, 2021. http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info/23071.

Emery, Irene. “Crossed- and Transposed-Warp Weaves: Use of Terms.” In The Primary Structures of Fabrics, 190. Washington, DC: The Textile Museum & Thames & Hudson, 1966, 2009.

Fane, Diana, ed. Converging Cultures: Art and Identity in Spanish America. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.

Grau, Cecilia Pardo. “The living landscapes of Peru.” British Museum. Published September 7, 2021. https://blog.britishmuseum.org/the-living-landscapes-of-peru/.

Katzew, Ilona. Casta Painting: Images of Race in Eighteenth-Century Mexico. Yale Univ. Press, 2005.

Levey, Santina. Lace: A History. Leeds: W.S. Maney, 1983.

Martinez, Augusto Olivos. “Técnica textil Chancay se estaría perdiendo.” Youtube, November 11, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofq_nGwLTD8. 

McHugh, Julia. “Andean Textiles.” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, June 2020. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/adtx/hd_adtx.htm. 

Museum, Victoria and Albert. “Border | Unknown | V&A Explore The Collections.” Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections. Accessed December 1, 2021. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O2/O28/O288/O2882/O28825/O288255/.

Phipps, Elena, Johanna Hecht, and Cristina Esteras Martín. The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530-1830. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.

Prakash, Gyan. After Colonialism: Imperial Histories and Postcolonial Displacements. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.

Ramos, Gabriela. “Los tejidos y la sociedad colonial andina.” Colonial Latin American Review 19, no. 1 (April 2010): 115-149. https://doi.org/10.1080/10609161003643719.

Stone-Miller, Rebecca. To Weave for the Sun: Ancient Andean Textiles in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. London: Thames & Hudson, 1994.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Strip | Mexican.” Accessed December 1, 2021. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/215302.

Additional Resources:

Telles, Edward, and Tianna Paschel. “Who Is Black, White, or Mixed Race? How Skin Color, Status, and Nation Shape Racial Classification in Latin America.” American Journal of Sociology 120, no. 3 (2014): 864–907. https://doi.org/10.1086/679252.

Martinez-Echazabal, Lourdes. “Mestizaje and the Discourse of National/Cultural Identity in Latin America, 1845-1959.” Latin American Perspectives 25, no. 3 (1998): 21–42. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2634165.