The focus of the Museum's exhibits is on textiles and garments woven in richly colored images and patterns representing traditional designs that symbolize social and religious beliefs.
Peru's most popular feria, or fair, is held in the town on Huancayo. It is the home of Peru's largest native market. The Quechua women wear these brightly dyed, llama wool costumes in the green, red and yellow colors of the sacred Quetzal bird when participating in religious processions or to market. Their unusually shaped hats have a practical purpose: the flat brims protect them from sudden mountain downpours.
Nicaragua did not have a national costume until the mid 1900s. The government corrected that by holding a contest to design one. The winner featured a midriff-length white overblouse and a short wrap skirt trimmed with colorful appliqués of designs that honor the country's Mayan ancestors. As time passed, the ladies of Nicaragua designed their own, more formal, fiesta adaptations of the original costume to wear to parties. This long, bright green example is accented in gold.
When the 1910 Revolution was finally over, national pride began to grow and spread throughout Mexico. One of the ways it manifested itself was in glorifying its heroes, both men and women, by glamorizing their clothes. The country was looking for a concrete symbol to represents its national identity. They chose the China Poblana and the Charro as their National Costumes because they believed those figures stood for the finest elements in the spirt of Mexico. Charro suits are trimmed in soutache braid, or on more formal versions, with silver and gold emblems called botanaduras. The outfit is also worn by dancers when performing Mexico's National Dance, the Jarabe Tapatio.
Danzas, or dances, are an integral part of most festivals in Mexico. The Gueleguetza, the largest dance festival of the year, is held in the state of Oaxaca. This costume, the China Oaxaqueña, is seen at the Gueleguetza and represents the district of Oaxaca. This lovely costume has a unique headdress. Extending from a simple, straw, basket base are tall, flower-covered figuras caprichosas, or whimsical figures such as stars, hearts or moons. Imagine how much practice it must take to dance with this balanced on your head!
The fiesta dress from the village of Juautla de Jimenez, Oaxaca, is a favorite costume worn for Brownsville's Charro Days celebrations because it is comfortable to wear and flatters any figure. Oaxacan girls embroider pretty birds and flowers on cotton squares in "colores chillones" (or colors that cry out) at an early age and later join them together with bright satin ribbons to form the top of their costumes. Their gala skirts feature an unusual embroidered border design of men pulling balking mules. Some say it symbolizes the stubbornness of women!
The state of Tamaulipas, in Northern Mexico, is ranch country. Their fiesta garments are made in suede, trimmed with appliqued designs of the Tamaulipas Coat of Arms, the National Emblem of an eagle or the rancher's cattle brand and western-style fringe. These costumes are admired and highly prized by those who live on both sides of the border and are often seen during Brownville's Charro Days celebrations.
More than one woman who fought in the Mexican Revolution has been identified as the inspiration for "La Adelita," one of the best known corridos, or songs, to come out of that conflict. Whoever she was, the term "Adelita" came to represent all respectable women involved in the Revolution.
Currently on Exhibit:
Fiestas and Festivals
Cultures in the Americas have many reasons to celebrate - baptisms, weddings, patron Saints' Days and patriotic holidays. If there's a day for it, there's a party or festival for it. The word festival is derived from the Latin word fest, meaning "to celebrate a church holiday". Over the years the word evolved into fetê, festa, fiesta, all meaning to revel in and commemorate a special occasion.
In Mexico, fiesta is a word that brings joy and the promise of pleasure to all who reside there. The country has 55 officially registered festivals and innumerable others. Several have patriotic themes; others are carnivals. However, most are religiously inspired. They are a central part of life in Mexico. Famed essayist, Octavio Pax states: "Fiestas are our sole luxury, common people will save all year to participate in their village's public festivities." An integral part of these festivities is the outstanding traditional costumes the participants wear with pride to show off their skilled handwork and to celebrate their cultural heritage.
Brownsville, Texas has its own unique example of a Mexican Fiesta, Charro Days, which celebrates its 75th anniversary in February 2012. It was founded in 1938 as a four-day pre-Lenten festival to attract people to our city and to honor the close relationship between our community and our neighbors in Mexico. The early Charro Days festivities included street dances, horse-drawn floats, motorboat regattas, horse races, firework displays, rodeos and carnivals. Some events were discontinued in the years that followed and others added: the Grand Ball (featuring renowned band leaders such as Xavier Cugat and Desi Arnaz), the Children's Parade (featuring folkloric dances and school bands), concerts and the Sombrero Festival.
Pan American Round Table I was instrumental in helping to organize the first Charro Days and in promoting the wearing of authentic Mexican costumes to all of the events. Their involvement inspired the members' interest in acquiring those Mexican costumes, thus expanding their original gathering of costumes from Central and South America. It resulted in the extensive collection housed in this museum, allowing the history and beauty of the costumes to be shared permanently with the community.
Come visit the Costumes of the Americas Museum and the new Exhibit:
Fiestas and Festivals!!!
Previously on Exhibit :
Viva los Centennarios!!!
(September 2010 thru September 2011)
The previous exhibit at the Costumes of the Americas Museum celebrated the Bicentennial of Mexico's War of Independence and the Centennial of the 1910 Revolution, historic events which forged modern Mexico and had a great impact on the people's lifestyles, cultures and even styles of clothing.
Revolution:
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910 for several reasons. The young elite and middle classes were dissatisfied with the thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz which gave them no voice in government. Another reason was the growing resentment of the country's indigenous people over the loss of their traditional lands. Heroes from all walks of life were incited to fight in the Revolution including Franciso I. Madero, Venustiano Carranza, Franciso "Pancho" Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Alvaro Obregon and millions of brave men, women and children who risked their lives for freedom. The cost of the Revolution was massive, both in lives lost (over a million died) and in a shattered economy that took many years to recover. The price of freedom is never cheap, but its benefit to the people of Mexico was priceless.
Conquest...insurrection...independence! All events that radically altered the lives of the native people of Mexico forever.
Viva los Centennarios!
