Amatenango del Valle, the town of the most beautiful Chiapas handicrafts

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The women in Amatenango del Valle, Chiapas, have known how to work clay very well since they were children, but also the backstrap loom and know how to make tortillas by hand.

Without a lathe, with their hands, the women of Amatenango del Valle learn to work with clay since they were children. With it, they make doves, roosters, lamps, pots, and plates. They make pichanchas, pots covered with holes that when they use to wash the corn, before transporting it to the mill, end up being flowerpots.

They also pay tribute to the jaguars that used to prowl the area and that now exist in clay figures only. They work in their homes, in their patios, market their pieces cooked in the open air, and let the sun wash away the moisture from their pieces.

There is, for example, Albertina López (Las Casas 6, Centro; T. 01992 655 4015), one of many Tzeltal women who lives surrounded by shelves, unfinished animals, and paintbrushes. Her attire, like that of the others, is also the work of her fingers.

She embroidered her blouse, sewed her skirt and apron, and with the gentle air of someone who knows she owns her things, Albertina passes every day in front of the Church of San Francisco de Asís in the main square.

The women in Amatenango del Valle, Chiapas, have known how to work clay very well since they were children, but also the backstrap loom and know how to make tortillas by hand. Have you been to this Chiapas town?

Any visitor who goes around the Church of San Lorenzo does not have to wait long, surely he will soon receive an invitation to any house to see what happens around a backstrap loom.

If you look at Paola Hernández’s (Cristóbal Colón 44, Centro; T. 01967 129 1453), you will discover intricate silk and cotton blouses. Tablecloths, cushions, bedspreads, bags and shawls pile up everywhere. There is no shortage of people making tortillas by hand in the kitchen, while the wind moves purple flowers in the backyard of one of the houses in Amatenango del Valle.

How to get to Amatenango del Valle?

From San Cristóbal de las Casas it is 37 km away along federal highway 190 that leads to Comitán.

Source: Mexico Desconocido

San Cristobal Post