it's hard to overstate the importance of dress among the Mayans
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A woman from the village of San
Antonio Palopo selling clothing.

Anywhere in the world dress is a fundamental indicator of one's position in society. In the US one is either a "blue collar" or a "white collar" worker. The Mayans of Guatemala are some of the last indigenous people on Earth who continue to wear native, hand-woven clothing. They do so with great pride, but also at great expense.

A young girl from the village of San Pedro La Laguna.

A Mayan woman seldom refers to herself as "Mayan" per se, but as being "de corte" or "of the skirt". In fact, for Mayans to become "Ladino" all that happens is that the women of the household abandon the "traje" or Mayan dress.

The woman of Solola are unique in that wear what they call a "camisa" or shirt for everyday use and only wear the "huipil" of the village for ceremonial purposes.

In general each Mayan village has a style of clothing unique to that village. Within each village subtle shifts of dress (or at least they seem subtle to us) indicates significant differences in social status. A married couple will work for months, scrimping and saving to have enough money to buy the wife's clothing.

This woman, from San Marcos La Laguna, is weaving a panel from which she later will make a "huipil" or blouse like the one she is wearing.

A woman from San Lucas
Toliman selling corte.

It is hard to overstate the importance of dress among the Mayans. In Guatemala in particular, with its history of strife and division, it is not just a statement of who they are but, a but a clear, occasionally even defiant, declaration of who they are not.

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