I made these photos for my friends, the Dixza family of Benizaa, or Zapotec, weavers, when I was living in Oaxaca in 2017.
The Dixza patio, overflowing with flora and crowded with spindles and looms, is the center of the family’s work and life.
The family uses traditional tools and dyes, like this metate stained with cochineal.
Leonor, the matriarch, is known for her infections smile.
The majority of families in Teotitlaan del Valle, where the Dixza family lives, make their living from weaving. While the Benizaa have practiced the art for centuries, their tapetes have recently been enjoying international fame as the village has become a popular tour stop for Oaxaca’s visitors.
The tapetes’ threads are spun from hand-dyed Criollo wool. The rich magenta color Leonor’s son Samuel indicates is derived from cochineal, a pigment long-used by indigenous artists in the Americas, later prized by Spanish colonists.
While some of the Dixza designs are traditional, others are collaborations with contemporary artists or pay homage to famous paintings like this Matisse.
Samuel carries a selection of tepetes that he wants me to photograph.
But first, he must feed the goats.
On Samuel’s suggestion, we take the tapetes to the family’s nearby cattle land.
The tapetes’ traditional designs are rich with references to the Benizaa cosmovision. Their colors reflect the landscape of Oaxaca’s Central Valleys.
Samuel is a savvy digital marketer. Skillfully promoting his family’s ancestral business on the global market, he uses twenty first century tools to secure a future for this ancient art.