A history of highland Guatemalan textiles: lost opportunities and colonial legacies, 1760-1820

Abstract

The economic history of the colonial Kingdom of Guatemala centers on the production and export of coffee and indigo, while leaving Guatemalan textile production and sale to anthropologists and weavers. This dissertation addresses the question of what occurred to those dependent upon the textile trade in the late colonial period between 1760 and 1820 with the intrusion of British textiles. Because of colonial demand, spinners, weavers, and merchants all depended upon this industry for their livelihood. This is also not even taking into consideration those people who could not weave or did not have the time to weave who still required cloth and clothing as a necessity of everyday living. Guatemala was aversely affected by contraband and, ultimately, legal trade in British textiles. The inexpensive, lightweight, printed fabrics demolished any need or desire for locally-produced textiles. There were sufficient resources, a large skilled labor pool, and significant demand, yet Guatemala failed to reach the level of protoindustrialization of the textile industry. This study investigates Guatemalan society through the lens of textiles to discuss the material culture of the different ethnicities and class representations of society at the close of the colonial era. Also included are the following appendices: a bibliography of works related to Guatemalan textiles to date; dates of publication for the published works related to Guatemalan textiles; a listing of nineteenth-century travelers to Guatemala organized according to date of travel publications along with their gender and country of origin; card catalog information related to textiles from 1760¿1820 in the Archivo General de Centro Am¿rica (AGCA) in Guatemala City; and a listing of women accused of the theft of cloth and clothing brought before the criminal courts in late-colonial Guatemala, including their names, ages, ethnicities, and marital status where available.