Cintas are worn differently from town to town, as well. They are crisscrossed over the forehead like a turban, wrapped and tied in a bow on the side or front, tied in back, or wrapped like a halo. When wrapped around the head, the cinta from Santiago Atitlan looks similar to some ancient headdresses seen on Maya sculptures from the Classic Period (Schevill 1993).
Women in certain towns weave their own cintas, although there are professional cinta weavers, known as cinteros, including both men and women, who produce cintas commercially. In Santiago Atitlán and San Sebastián Huehuetenango, only men are headband weavers. Totonicapan cinteros, both men and women, make cintas with standardized designs and sell them all over Guatemala in tourist markets (Altman and West 1992).
The cinta is important in completing the full costume of Maya women. It recalls a snake worn as a headband around the head of the Maya goddess of weaving, Ixchel. Ciaramella (1989) discusses the snake headdresses that the goddesses wear in the Dresden and Madrid codices, two Precolumbian Maya documents. There are two kinds of snakes worn as headdresses. Horned snakes are associated with pouring water, while friendly snakes, which appear to be smiling, are related with weaving. The association of the snake with weaving is further connected by its association with conception and childbirth.