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Originating in Persia and India, the rebozo or Mexican shawl was introduced to the Spanish during the Moorish conquest of Spain, then brought to Mexico by the Spanish. While the garment was called chal in Spain, (shal in the Orient, shawl in the Anglo world), Mexicans invented their own word, rebozo, from the verb arreborzarse, to cover oneself. Over the years the Mexican shawl lengthened, narrowed, and borrowed influences, including ikat or tie-dying weaving techniques, from shawls brought from China, the Philippines, and India aboard Mexico's Manila galleons in the 16th and 17th centuries. A 1582 royal decree forbidding the wearing of indigenous clothing by mestizas, mulatas, and negras further quickened the rebozo's rate of adoption. By the late 19th century the “rebozo” had become the symbol of Mexican womanhood and, like the native woman’s huipil or tunic, identified the wearer's region or village by its color, arrangement of stripes, fabric and fringe type. The way a woman draped it around her could even indicate her marital state, perhaps availability. The most common type of rebozo is of rayon or cotton with a tie-dyed “paloma de bolita” pattern, so the rebozo shimmers or looks as though sprinkled with sugar. The origin of this design was probably shawls from India, introduced into Mexico in the late 16th century via the Orient. Called “ikat”, this tie-dye technique was once the exclusive work of men in Zimatlán, Oaxaca, for a factory that supplied the whole of Mexico with its thread. Today, women in all walks of life use the rebozo in Mexico. Women use their rebozo on cold mornings, wrapping them snugly about their necks and shoulders. As the day warms, the rebozo may be folded into a convenient square pillow and placed on the head as a headdress, available when needed. The rebozo is used to protect the back of the neck from a blazing noonday sun, a little of the rebozo may be released to hang to the shoulders behind. The rebozo is used to carry infants - keeping them safe, close and warm; to carry products to market; as a functional headdress; and to embrace a woman's shoulders in life and often as she sleeps her last sleep. The Rebozo, threads of tradition, continues to be the all encompassing, uncomplaining symbol that identifies the Mexican women's feminine courage, strength and mystic. |