Between Masks and Weavings
A Colorful Journey to Guatemala
Today, the Embassy of Guatemala welcomes visitors as part of #PassportDC2025’s Around the World Embassy Tour!
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Our exhibit, "Between Masks and Weavings: A Colorful Journey to Guatemala," takes you on an immersive cultural experience. Explore traditional masks, admire intricate weavings, and feel the vibrant spirit of Guatemala in every detail.
Weaving for the Future
The Maya weavers who live in the DC metropolitan area have come together to continue their weaving tradition, share it with the public and their children, and create beautiful items for sale to enable a sustainable cooperative. Friends of the Ixchel Museum (FOIM) has granted funds to establish the cooperative, Tejiendo Para El Futuro. The weavers still use the back strap loom, or stick loom, an ingenious and simple device native to pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.
The loom is just the warp, the longitudinal threads of the cloth, that unite a series of sticks to facilitate the insertion of the weft, or horizontal threads. It is in the weft that the brocade designs you see originate. As the weaver sets up the loom, she determines the width of the textile and controls the tension on the threads via the back strap which is wrapped around her lower back -- the other end is tied to a sturdy anchor.
Las tejedoras de la cooperativa, Tejiendo Para El Futuro todavía usan el telar de otate, palitos, o cintura…igual que sus ancestros maya de Mesoamérica pre-colombiana. El telar es simplemente la urdimbre o los hilos longitudinales del telar que unen a una serie de palitos que facilitan la inserción de la trama, o los hilos horizontales. Es en la trama donde se originan los diseños del brocado. La tejedora está añadida al telar por una faja alrededor de la cadera y moviéndose para adelante y para atrás la tejedora puede controlar la tensión de los hilos mientras ella va tejiendo el diseño
Baile del Venado
Baile del Venado / Deer Dance
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During the conquest, the Spanish saw the four legged fauna and they asked the Indians what they called these animals. They said venados or deer. The Spanish also asked why they did not eat the deer. They said we do not have anything to hunt them with and besides on the mountain their lives a hunter who has permission to hunt. They went to the mountain to ask permission to hunt the deer from the Mountain God, Tzuultaq’a.
The Spanish began to hunt the deer with their guns. When the Indians went to hunt the deer they found they were rabid. This dance is to appease the deer.
Durante la conquista de Guatemala, los españoles miraban la fauna que atravesaba los caminos, encantados por la silvestre locomoción y la diversidad cuadrúpeda, se dirigían a los indígenas, preguntando los nombres de los animales, ellos respondían que se llamaban: “venados”.
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Los españoles volvían a preguntar por qué no mataban a los venados para comérselos, ellos contestaban que no tenían armas para hacerlo, y a demás indicaron a los españoles, que en un cerro vivía un cazador, este tenía permiso para cazar con cerbatana. Luego los nativos fueron en busca del viejo cazador y le pidieron permiso a Tzuultaq’a, Dios del Cerro. Los españoles consiguieron un arma de fuego para cazar a los venados. Luego el cazador y sus acompañantes al intentar cazar a los venados se dieron cuenta que estos animales eran rabiosos, por eso prepararon este baile.
Marimba
​In 2011 UNESCO initiated the Cultural Corridor of the Marimba to underscore its development and evolution in the Americas. From Mexico through Central America and down to South America it is the instrument that in its many shapes and sizes has been a part of and influenced the music and traditions of our diverse communities.
By 2015 the Organization of American States (OAS) recognized the Guatemalan Marimba as "Cultural Heritage of the Americas.” This recognition corresponds to the expression of culture rooted in the daily lives and feelings that become identified with a country and its people. As the national instrument of Guatemala our identity is intertwined with its melodic tones and the ‘son’ rhythm typically played on it and its accompanying flutes, chirimía, tun, barrel drum, maracas, the turtle shell and bass. The small marimba has a sounding board made of “tecomates” or gourds and can be easily carried and played by one person.
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Our artists for PassportDC 2025: Kevin Cabrera y José Cabrera from Marimba Maya AWAL