Cofradía over-huipil
San Martín Jilotepeque, Chimaltenango
Mayan language: kaqchikel
Year created: 1930
Ixchel Museum collection: MI-04092

This is an overblouse to the usual huipil. Two panels, woven on a backstrap loom with natural white cotton for the warp and weft of the base, seamed by hand with the same type of cotton. The lower border shows red lines of the same thread across the weft. The vertical neck has no decoration, nor do the armholes.

The small geometric designs are brocaded with supplementary wefts of the same material in blue, purple, red, and green, possibly all tinted with natural dyes: the first with indigo, and the second with purpura pansa murex (a sea mollusk).

For more on dyestuffs, see our June 2020 bulletin article by Raymond E. Senuk.