T I X I N D A
The story of ‘caracol purpura’ – purple snail dye.
Nobody knows the origin, but Habacuc Avendaño was 15 years old when he first went to harvest the rare purple snail dye with his uncle, walking 8 days through the mountains on tiny trails and along the beach to Huatulco Bay. In 1956, there were no roads or transportation, now it still takes a day or two to travel by vehicle from his home village of Pinotepa de Don Luis to where the snails can be found. The rocky shores of the 9 Huatulco Bays are only accessible by local boat.
There are now just 14 dyers in Pinotepa and the knowledge has been passed from generation to generation including how to check the moon for the right tides.
At 84, Habacuc still climbs the rocks, with his son Rafael to pick the snail from the rocky crevices, often prying them loose with a stick. With his right hand, he squeezes the snail to release the purple dye directly onto the cotton skein which is draped over his left forearm. He then returns it back to the rocks. The cotton turns from white to yellow to green to purple as it dries on the beach.
In their annual trip of just one week each family is able to collect enough dye for 4 skeins of cotton. Since pre-colonial times the indigenous Mixtec people on the coast of the Oaxaca have used the snail to dye their traditional clothing. Traditionally, their wrap around skirts called posahuancos were woven on a backstrap loom with pre-hispanic native cotton, dyed with purple (Purpura pansa); red (cochineal) and blue (indigo).
Now, the threads are used sparingly, as embellishment along collars with embroidery stitches depicting sea life, flowers and birds or for the intricate, fine designs woven into cloth using the supplementary weft technique. The snail (Plicopurpura pansa), known to the Mixtecs as tixinda, is under threat from poachers who collect it for local restaurants.
“Of course, this is not work you can live by. It is a culture that was passed down to us by our ancestors, and one which we are working on preserving today.”