Oaxaca Stories in Cloth
A book about people, belonging, roots, identity and adornment.
2017 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, Gold, Multicultural
2017 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, Silver, Art & Photography
2017 Latino Book Awards, Second Place, Art Books
On the surface this is a book about what I call community fashion. Community fashion is a style of dress shared in common by members of a village or town, a collective identity. It is not uncommon that the clothing is made by the very people of those communities and often its design is filled with symbolic meaning, dreamt into being over the generations, stories in cloth, that like language, are dynamic and slowly evolving.
The focus of this book is the mega-diverse Mexican state of Oaxaca, a place I lived for 25 years. Over a two year period I visited 57 communities and took over 200 portraits of individuals who continue to dress in the way of their unique heritage on a daily basis. The collection of images in this book represent the largest visual registry in existence of the diversity of community fashion in Oaxaca. A selection of them are highlighted in my Living Threads gallery.
Yet much more than being a book about clothing, this is a book about people, belonging, heritage and roots. I see this book as a beautiful and poetic dose of medicine for people like myself who come from a culture that has lost so much connection to what is deeply meaningful and holy about existence.
For me, the clearest, most beautiful way to characterize this somewhat intangible thing called heritage and belonging, these roots and this sense of what is holy, is through photos of traditional people and their dress ways, people who understand belonging and roots the way I understand breathing. So though the focus would appear to be fashion, the story that this clothing tells for me is not so much one of how people dress, but what is symbolized by dressing in a way shared in common by the members of one’s village.
Clothing becomes a flag of community, draped over one’s shoulders and wrapped around one’s hips as a way of saying, “I am of We, and We are of Here”. It is a statement of belonging, a proud woven link to deep ancient layers of artistic heritage. And in each and every one of these rooted communities, one’s parents, grandparents and great grandparents were also from there, knowing that they are members of an extended family, this oldest and most perfect human support system. Likewise they are, by birthright, part of an interconnected circle of community. To live in such a place, where so many generations of one’s ancestors have lived, is then to live in the fertile compost of layer upon layer of stories, generations of being and experience, the duff of lifetimes enriching your roots. These are the kind of conditions humans have evolved to exist in, this is what allows our hearts to blossom and our souls to be filled. In this way, which is the ancient way of all of us, there exists a simple thing called well-being.
Excerpt from Acknowledgements, Oaxaca Stories in Cloth
This book exists for and because of the strongly rooted
people of traditional Oaxaca. They have been my teachers as
I search to make sense out of a fractured, hard-edged modern
world and seek the essence of what it must be like to live deeply
in a place, a way, and a community. My gut tells me there is
something very sane and human to be found in such conditions.
First and foremost, I thank you. By you I mean all the
people who stand present in this book and the thousands more
who stand at your sides. You opened your doors and invited
me in, offered me a seat, and gave me a hot drink. You told me
stories of your day, your fields, your long walks, and of simple
things filled with meaning. And then you filled my hands with
gifts of homemade tamales and tortillas as I bid farewell in the
afternoon. This book belongs to you. Let it live as a reminder of
the value of your singular cultures, arts, and heritage. Let your
children see you in your humble power and quiet dignity and
recognize the profound value of the many generations of learning
you embody even as they are tempted to leave it behind for
the lure of money and shiny digital devices. And let the people
beyond these old communities and rooted ways, some of whom
out of their ignorance consider you and your ways somehow
less, see this book as well and understand the wisdom of our
rooted brothers and sisters on this planet. Thank you all for
your teachings, for being the example to a rootless one like me.
Reviews
"An exquisitely beautiful account of a people and a textile tradition that is the perfect expression of their past, the embodiment of their present, and the symbol of their cultural survival as they chart their way forward. A glorious book." —Wade Davis, author, photographer, National Geographic Explorer in residence, Professor of Anthropology at University of British Columbia
"This beautiful book carries us directly up dusty roads and into the heart of the vibrant villages of Oaxaca where ancient traditions are alive with meaning and import, even in today’s harried world." —Peggy Clark, Director, Alliance for Artisan Enterprise, The Aspen Institute
"Eric Mindling’s search for Oaxacan women wearing traditional dress today is surprisingly touching and beautiful. Much more than a documentation of living and dying traditions it is a window into the soul of women." —Walter F. Morris, Jr., Author, Maya Threads: A Woven History of Chiapas and Living Maya
"Few visitors reach the remote communities documented in this crucially important book.Travellers, ethnographers, and lovers of fine textiles will welcome this book as a magnificent and profoundly human record of the rich cultural heritage of Oaxaca." —Chloë Sayer, author, Mexican Textiles and Mexico: Clothing and Culture; research associate, Department for World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum
"All real beauty comes from the grief we feel for the loss of what we love. Oaxaca Stories in Cloth, is undeniably one of the most beautiful books of its species. A book of grief, beauty, and hope." —Martín Prechtel, author, The Smell of Rain and Dust, Grief and Praise, Secrets of the Talking Jaguar
"Nothing like this exists in Mexico or the world. It is a jewel of a textile registry, but done artistically, with sensitivity, with ingenuity, and with love." —Ana Paula Fuentes, founding Director, Museo Textil de Oaxaca
"Symbols in weaving express the passage of time and the transience of beauty. Mindling's photos illustrate this force, this beauty, and its connection to our past in the cultural and geographical context that has evolved in Oaxaca." —Lila Downs, Grammy Award-winning Mexican singer and songwriter