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| Department: |
Sacatepequez |
| Language Group: |
Kaqchikel |
| Elevation: |
1,530m |
Patron Saint &
Festival Days: |
San Antonio de Padua - June 13
Good Friday processions |
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San Antonio Aguas Calientes is set in a valley to the northwest of the Acatenango volcano, 6 kilometers outside of Antigua. The traditional adobe walls and tiled roofs have mostly been replaced with concrete blocks and galvanized metal roofs since the 1976 earthquake. San Antonio weavers, who are renowned for the superb quality of their double-faced marcador technique textiles, use an image drawn on graph paper as a guide to create their brocaded designs.
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THE San Antonio huipil is constructed of two backstrap woven panels on a solid color base fabric, often leaving the panels un-joined in the center to create the neck opening. Older style huipiles feature geometric figures exclusively. Since about the 1930s, the popularity of figurative marcador designs has steadily increased to the extent that the designs sometimes cover the entire surface of the huipil. Favorite patterns include realistic flower, bird and cherub motifs, rendered in vibrant multicolored hues with orange and blue predominating. No specific ceremonial huipil exists as a woman's newest huipil is used for special occasions. |
Because new San Antonio huipiles are among the most expensive in the country, they have become a status-symbol trade-huipil when worn by women from other villages. A square, round or v-shaped neck opening trimmed in velvet and\or appliqué, usually indicates that the huipil was sold and used in another village.The modern huipiles of the nearby towns of Santa Catarina Barahona, Santiago Zamora, Parramos and San Andrés Itzapa, may be subtly different from those of San Antonio in materials and workmanship. Weavers from Comalapa, Tecpan and distant Concepcion Chiquirichapa, as well as machine embroiderers from Santa María de Jesús, produce modern huipiles that have borrowed heavily from San Antonio designs. |
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The traditional foot-treadle loom woven indigo-blue morga with white pinstripes has been replaced by a striped jaspe corte in bright colors. The Salcajá double jaspe corte is also popular.
Older women usually interweave their two hanging braids with a commercial ribbon tied together at the ends. During Semana Santa white is the preferred color for the ribbon. |
The traditional belt is a 4 to 7" wide striped cotton band is still used by older women. The most common belt today is a locally woven version of the classic Totonicapán belt that integrates scorpion, lizard, fish and flower motifs.
The special tzute is two panels woven using the marcador technique and simply joined with a whipstitch. It is often woven by the bride as a wedding gift for her mother-in-law and is worn folded on the head in church.
The men's gabán, a long woolen poncho-like garment that drops lower in the back, is decorated with kumatzim (literally, worms), a wavy stitch that is added to the bottom seam in front. The complete traje includes white pants and shirt in a European cut, a necktie and a striped sash. Men's traje has all but disappeared, as in the late 1990's it was only being worn by a few old men.
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