the native dress of San Pedro La Laguna
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This girl is wearing the typical "traje" or
native costume of San Pedro.

San Pedro is one of the two Tzutujil speaking villages on the lake (or anywhere for that matter), the other being Santiago Atitlan. One would think that linguistic similarity would imply other similarities, but that doesn't seem to be the case when it comes to native dress.

A woman from Santiago.

The native dress, or "traje", of the Mayans is central to their culture and to their concept of who they are as a society. Yet while both villages are linguistically related, their "traje" is very different.

The women of San Pedro no longer weave their "huipils" or blouses, but make them out of machine woven cloth. They are one of the few Mayan villages in Guatemala the women don't weave their huipils. They used to, but I have seen only a couple over the years, and those quite a while ago.

The huipil this woman is wearing is like the original in that it is white with frills. The only difference is that the white cloth is machine made.

The man's shirt from San Pedro.

Unlike many Mayan villages the men of San Pedro are still wear "traje". The pants and the sash are hand-woven. Store bought shirts are commonly worn though the original handwoven shirts are still around.

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