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Chichicastenango

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Women's Traje

Market Scenes

 Chichicastenango is located just north of Lake Atitlan in the Highlands of Guatemala. The inhabitants of this area speak Quiche, a Mayan language that has roots in the Classic Period as the Greater Quichean linguistic family (Coe 1993: 27). During the Postclassic, the Quiche center of political power was Utatlan, which was defeated in 1524 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado (Scheville 1985: 6). Those that escaped made their way to Chuguila, which is now called Chichicastenango, 'place of the nettles' (Petterson 1976: 84).

Today Chichicastenango is most known for its markets, which are held on Thursdays and Sundays. The myriad of colors, smell of incense, smoke, voices, firecrackers, and riotous activities of the market serve as constant stimulators to the senses.

At the heart of the market in the main plaza is the colonial church of Santo Tomas, which was constructed in 1540. It was here that the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of creation of the Quiche Maya, was first shown to Francisco Ximenez, a parish priest, in the seventeenth century (Tedlock 1996, 27).

The market fills with not only Quiche Maya from the surrounding region, but vendors from all over Guatemala and tourists from all over the world. Contact with foreigners, however, rarely extends to the outlying hamlets of the municipality. Like their ancestors before them, the Quiche Maya live in these rural areas, which are close to their fields and sacred altars. Visits to town occur on fiesta and market days (Conte 1984: 52, Petterson 1976: 94, Scheville 1985:7). It is during these times that the ethnic identities of women as expressed by traditional clothing are most apparent.

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