Only about 40 minutes south of Oaxaca City is a small town called Teotitlán de Valle. We randomly found this town just scrolling through the map on Airbnb trying to find somewhere to stay outside of a big city, and what a great idea that was! This town was founded by the Zapotecs and still has a very large Zapotec community, many of whom have textile businesses that go back in their families for generations. And we were lucky enough to stay with a family at their house/workshop where they have been creating rugs and other products for five generations!

Taller Hueller Carmín

The family’s textile workshop, named Hueller Carmin for the vibrant red featured in many of their creations, is situated next to the family residence and Airbnb. The buildings flow together like a homemade Hogwarts, joined by a patchwork of staircases and balconies. We got lost a few times the first day navigating the small complex.

Upstairs in the workshop is where the artists create spools of yarn and natural dyes. We tried our hand at collating the raw wool with metal brushes (this step reminded John of grooming his West Highland Terrier) and hand-rolling it into yarn. Their yarn is strong, tight, and uniform. Ours was weak, loose, and clumpy. Rey David politely set ours to soak in a vat of dye.

The dyes are arguably the most fascinating step in the process. Each is made of plants or insects from Oaxaca, like red from dried Cochineal (a parasite that feasts on the nopal cactus), and blue from flower peddles fermented, ground to a pulp, and dried into chalky blocks. We practiced grinding dry pigments on the metate and mixing colors in our palms with lime juice and ash. The Zapotecs, before the luxury of modern scientific tools, even discovered a mineral that opens the pours of the wool to lock pigment inside the fibers. 

Downstairs is where spools of yarn are transformed into elegant rugs, or tapetes. A row of large, wooden looms hold works-in-progress that look as though they’re emerging from a copy machine. The artists masterfully manipulate these looms with foot pedals and multiple spools to create complex patterns and textures. We were allowed to perform a couple of passes on Rey David’s current tapete, which he may or may not have undone after we left.

Each tapete takes about a month to complete, depending on its size and intricacy. More complex concepts will be articulated in sketches or computer renderings before they are committed to yarn, but more often the artists translate ideas directly onto the loom. The family adheres to traditional methods of spinning, dying, and weaving yarn, but are innovative in their designs. They’ve even developed some new products, including pressed wool hats and dog beds. 

The Dogs

Everywhere we’ve been in Mexico has a lot of dogs roaming free, some stray and some with homes but with a lot of free range. Nowhere is that more true than in Teotitlán. You could not walk a block without at least one dog passing you, following you, or (rarely) barking at you from behind a fence. Most of them barely acknowledge you, but they are always there! 

At our Airbnb, we hit the jackpot and had 3 dogs that became our temporary pets during our stay. Cappuccino was the sweetest pup and snuck into our room when we first got there and left the door open for a minute. The cutest surprise! The other two had Spanish names that we never could remember, so we named them Churro and Big Boy (pics below, you’ll know who is who).

Our favorite memory of them will be on our second evening, we left the house to walk the 10 minutes into town and all three pups decided to follow us. Big Boy leading most of the time, Cappuccino right beside us, and little Churro trying to keep up. They would greet every dog we passed, and every corner we expected them to turn back but they never did. Once we made it to town and they tried to go into stores with us we texted our hosts to make sure this was normal. And to our surprise it was not! So we started our walk back toward the house to return them and luckily our loyal pups were just as happy to follow us all the way back, although it was a little hard to get them back inside with their owners (we’re clearly a lot of fun). The three of them were one of our favorite parts of our stay, we miss them already!

The Fireworks

For those that don’t know, Christine is not exactly a fan of fireworks (aka she is terrified of them). She thinks they’re pretty from afar but hates the loud booms. So just our luck, we found the tiniest town with the biggest firework obsession. No joke, at all hours of the day there were sporadic fireworks going off in all directions. And mostly just firecrackers so you don’t even get the benefit of the pretty lights! One morning we were having breakfast at the town market next to the church, and suddenly three loud firecrackers went off right behind us. Christine jumped (per usual) and someone told us that they always set off fireworks during Mass. Now that is a community attached to their fireworks if we ever saw one.

This all lead up to our last full day in Teotitlán – May 3rd – which happens to be a big holiday in the Zapotec community called the Dia de Santa Cruz. And want to guess how the town likes to celebrate? You guessed it! Total silence.

Ha – just kidding. It started with one of our neighbors setting off a decently large set of fireworks at midnight and waking us up, and then lead to the rest of the day literally walking with our ears covered because it was very likely a big boom was about to go off next to you while walking down the street. It was essentially Christine’s worst nightmare. But the silver lining is by the end of our stay she barely reacted to the relatively distant booms as they had become so common place. Immersion therapy works!

The Town Schedule

Teotitlán is definitely a town with its own schedule, and I can’t say we ever got the hang of it. One night we walked to town to get dinner around 6pm only to find everywhere was already closed! That night became a cup-of-noodle from the convenience store kind of night – a good balance to our fancy meals in Oaxaca 🙂

Then, armed with the knowledge that things close early, we assumed that meant the town starts the day early. But the next morning when Christine went to get coffee at the local coffee shop at 8am, they hadn’t opened yet! We learned to call places to find out their hours (google maps lies), make sure to get places an hour or so before they supposedly close, and only rely on the daily farmers market for breakfast because who knows when places will open for the day.

Overall, Teotitlán was the perfect place to stop for a few days. It’s a small enough town that everyone knows everyone, and anyone we met or even passed on the street was so friendly and kind. We hope to go back someday and spend some time making a rug of our own!

Christine & John