Weaving Guatemalan Memories

Symbols of Mayan culture and a rural boyhood are threaded into the work of Armando Sosa.

By: Susan Van Dongen

The Virgin Mary (above) is woven into a tapestry by Armando Sosa.

   In Armando Sosa’s intricate weavings, colorfully gowned figures dance in celebration at a harvest festival, little girls jump rope and a boy flies an enormous kite.
   All are images woven into the intricate textiles created by Mr. Sosa, a Ringoes resident. Working on his hand-made looms, he loves to relive moments from childhood and share memories with his viewers. We see the soccer games of his youth, wild animals that populate the jungles in his country and gods and shaman of the indigenous Mayan people.
   The kite-flying boy is probably his favorite to re-create, taking Mr. Sosa back to his childhood in the northern highlands of Guatemala.
   "I was remembering how my father made me a kite, which seemed huge because I was so little," says Mr. Sosa. "The textile with the kite also shows a group of dancers. When I made it, I was remembering this big town-wide summer festival held in the central plaza in front of the church, with people wearing richly colorful costumes and fireworks going off in the background. When I’m making these pieces, I’m trying to express these memories from my home."
   A number of exquisite weavings by Mr. Sosa are being shown at the Gallery at the Chapin School in Princeton through Dec. 20. One of Mr. Sosa’s hand-made looms is also on view. He will use the loom to give a demonstration for Chapin students in December.
   Mr. Sosa, born in 1953 into a family of weavers in rural Salcajá, Guatemala, began spinning and dyeing cloth at age 8. His native town is known for its craftspeople and textiles, and he has fond memories of working alongside his father and grandfather.
   "I appreciate that I grew up in a humble home, and it was wonderful helping my father," he says, speaking softly in well-articulated English. "Most of the (weavings) my family did were for domestic use, for the Indians there. It’s not exactly like the work I’m doing now — the pieces were much easier to make."
   As a child, he had a variety of duties to help his family with their craft work. One of the most interesting was to make sure wandering cattle wouldn’t walk on the freshly dyed threads, which his father would display and dry along the riverbank.
   Mr. Sosa’s talents were recognized early on and by age 16, he had moved to Guatemala City to apprentice with an uncle. Soon, he had invitations to exhibit and teach in countries throughout Central America and in numerous locations in the United States. Mr. Sosa was even invited to teach weaving at the University of Southern California at San Diego, but chose to remain in Salcajá with his family.

Above and below, detail of weavings.

   His visits to the U.S. were curtailed during the 1980s as Guatemala and the surrounding countries were torn with political unrest. Mr. Sosa began to find making a living as a weaver was becoming increasingly difficult.
   "It is a time-consuming art form, and something that’s disappearing more and more," he says, noting that one of his large textiles takes about 100 hours of work. "The people who were doing the most artistic work are not doing it anymore. The ones who are weaving are kind of mass-producing (less-creative) pieces. They’re doing it without the love for the art form."
   In 1993, after 13 years of not being able to travel to the U.S., Mr. Sosa moved to Princeton. A cousin living in Princeton told him of work as a truck driver, then pointed him in the direction of a few other possibilities — including the factory job he currently holds in Rosemont, making electrical transformers.
   Mr. Sosa had been away from the loom for years but was inspired to weave again after meeting a number of Central Jersey artists who admired his work. Photographer and artist Karen McLean was especially instrumental in encouraging Mr. Sosa, connecting him with galleries and getting his work in the public eye. Ms. McLean also helped expand Mr. Sosa’s repertoire after he discovered her collection of art books.
   "Looking at Karen’s books and going to the museums inspired me to try some different ideas, more along the lines of Middle Eastern (kilims)," he says. "I made another (textile) for an English woman who sent me a book of antique European textiles and tapestries. Seeing this, I tried to play with more designs."
   The strongest influence in Mr. Sosa’s work, however, is still his Guatemalan heritage — a mixture of Spanish and Mayan blood.
   According to an article by Stephen D. Winick in Multitudes, the magazine of the Walt Whitman Arts Center in Camden — where Mr. Sosa’s work was exhibited in 2001 — the Mayans have one of the most highly developed traditions of textile hand-weaving in the world. Both men and women weave, and proudly wear their creations. The color schemes found in Mayan weaving range from earth tones to brilliant primary colors and jewel tones.
   Mr. Sosa employs a rainbow of hues, using satin threads to give the textile a sheen and metallic threads to make his works sparkle.
   "I use 70 percent silk threads and 30 percent cotton," he says. "I use the cotton in my warp (the vertical threads), and the silk for the horizontals."
   Numerous figures and motifs recur in his work, including a girl jumping rope, the lyre and traditional Guatemalan double-headed birds. He frequently pays homage to Mayan culture with depictions of the maize or corn god, who is always shown holding an ear of corn.
   "I tried to make this figure seated in a yoga (lotus) position, holding the corn plant in both hands, which gives it a contemplative, sacred quality," Mr. Sosa says.
   One of the most beautiful Christian religious symbols found in Mr. Sosa’s textiles is the Virgin Mary, complete with an azure blue cape and a shiny gold crown.
   Mr. Sosa likes to weave domestic and wild animals into his works, such as butterflies, goats, ducks, roosters, cats and dogs. Many of his pillows have an image of sheep woven into them, perhaps encouraging the owner to count the creatures for a good night’s sleep.
   With his beloved grandfather and father passed away and his immediate family still back in Guatemala, the textiles are a way for Mr. Sosa to connect with his homeland. The repetitive motion of weaving puts him in a trancelike state and he is transported by his imagination to his family and childhood in Salcajá.
   "The outside world disappears and I try to imagine helping my father, setting up all those beautiful colors in the loom," he said in the Multitudes interview. "I can even hear him sometimes, whistling along to the radio.
   "Seeing people appreciate what I’m doing pushes me to go farther, to dream more," Mr. Sosa says. "I want to share, through my weaving, this custom of the Guatemalan colors, our festivities and the friendliness of our people. I also hope people originally from Guatemala who are living in Central Jersey will see my work, and it can inspire them to weave."
Armando Sosa’s weavings are on view at the Gallery at the Chapin School, 4101 Princeton Pike, Princeton, through Dec. 20. Hours: by appointment during school hours. For information, call (609) 924-7206.