Reminders of Our Past

On the walls of INESIN, the site for our little Peace pilgrim group, bright tapestries hang on the wall.  The colors and patterns are beautiful. Elena, our host, explained the history of these particular tapestries.  They were made by Tseltal women from the village of Tenejapa not long ago, after they forgot and then remembered their patterns and colors.  They forgot the patterns and colors in the last century because the men were expected to work far away in the coffee fields, and the women began to take over the traditional work of the men.  The patterns were lost over a generation or two of daughters who did not learn to embroider in the way that their mothers had done before them.

The women of Tenejapa mourned the loss.  In Chiapas, the cloth is a piece of cultural identity.  There are 12 different Mayan languages that are still spoken here, representing different areas and indigenous groups, and the women are identified by the patterns and colors of their clothes.  So, the Tseltal women decided to pray for a pattern.  They all prayed over many days and embroidered the inspirations they had seen in their dreams, and when they all got together, they brought their patterns.  The patterns and colors were remarkably the same, representing the cosmos with God at the center of the universe.  While not identical, it was clear that this particular pattern represented their group.  From that time on, it was adopted…and some believe was later affirmed when archeologists found old cloth, buried under years of dirt, with patterns that matched what the women had seen in their dreams and recreated with their threads and stitches.

Holy One, let us turn to you for reminders of our past as we seek your direction in moving into the future.

Judy is a founding member of Peace Church and is inspired by its mission of inclusion and social justice.