San Juan Comalapa is located 82 km North West from the capital and 13 km from the Pan-American Highway on a newly paved road (1998). The overwhelming majority of the population (about 20,000 in 1981) speaks Kaqchikel Maya. Comalapa is known for it's primitive painters. It suffered heavy damage during the devastating 1976 earthquake.
The traditional faja, (woman's belt), is a strip of back strap-woven cloth of multi-colored stripes mirroring the separators of the huipiles. Narrower modern belts incorporate a variety of floral, fruit, animal and geometric designs reflecting motifs used in contemporary huipiles.
Comalapa is one of the few places where both men and women use the foot treadle loom. Weavers produce cortes, perrajes, lower cost huipiles, fabric for the widely exported Comalapa coin purse, and bolts of cloth with large rupaj plato designs. The production of machine embroidered blouses, belts and collar trim is a growing local industry. Community attitudes in Comalapa allow weavers the freedom of expression to make each huipil a unique personal work of art.
The daily-use huipil of San José Poaquil is strikingly similar to the ceremonial huipiles of Comalapa. They are easy to distinguish from the latter because of their smaller size and a prominent separator band that is about twice the width of those used in Comalapa. Other elements in common include the creya (red shoulder stripe), and small, stylized animal and bird motifs.
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