That Dress is You! Documenting Mexico's Past Present and Future Through Its Textile Art

The

Mexican Textiles

web site and the life, it seems, of its author Robert Freund weave (and that's really the best word for it) anthropology, history, art, and travel that is exhaustive in its documentation, scholarly into an insightful and beautiful to look at site. It's photo- and story-rich, a tapestry itself.

Freund has lived in Mexico City since the '70's and dedicated his time to identifying and documenting not just the textile styles of Mexico's indigenous groups, but the lore attached to them.

His biggest fear: Art, history, and culture sewn into dresses gets lost as tourism (no matter how eco), t.v., and jeans seep into a village and tribe's cultural reality.



He's catalogued Mexican indigenous group alphabetically from the Amusgo of Oaxaca to the Zapatec of the Sierra Juarez, recorded audio of basic language, and video of dances.