Las Colchas de New Mexico

Embroidered Textiles

by Patricia L. Cummings

The Spanish word “colcha” is used in a general sense to mean a quilt, a bedcovering, or a bedspread. A brief overview about colchas will be offered here. One book states that New Mexicans call any bedcovering a colcha. Modern “colchas,” sold online, are mass-produced, puffy affairs, no different that some of the imported home decorator quilts sold in department stores. This article explores the artistry and background of colchas as developed during the time of the Spanish colonization of New Mexico by Juan de Oñate (from 1598-1610).

Ancient Colcha-Making Tradition Continues

Let's start at the beginning, when considering the colchas of New Mexico. Colchas are one of the few original textile arts indigenous to New Mexico. They combine art and practicality and are still being made by colcheras today, some of whom meet once a week at the museum in Santa Fe, in a type of embroidery bee. An event in Santa Fe called “Spanish Market" features artists who win prizes for their colcha making.

One such person is Kathleen Lerner. See her beautiful colcha with a typical star motif. This is one isolated repeat design image of twelve that comprise her 235th colcha. In 2007, the piece won Best of Show, a Blue Ribbon, and People's Choice Award at Spanish Market in Santa Fe. The size of a garage door, she says, it is made of the wool of churro sheep, and only natural dyes were utilized.

Colcha making is a Spanish Colonial art form made possible by the utilization of wool from churro sheep, a sturdy breed that yields long, coarse fibers that are occasionally mixed with fine, merino sheep fibers and other fibers today, according to Bud Redding, marketing director of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The churro sheep has lasted in New Mexico since Oñate brought them in 1598.

In the early days of harvesting churro fleece, it was sun-dried atop roofs to kills fleas. The sun's ultra-violet rays provide an instant sanitizer. This practice was carried out in the days when fleece was sheared using only a sharp knife. By the way, the word “churro” means “common.”

Rare Resources Assist in Study

When I first began collecting information, several years ago, I found exactly three publications. One is a pamphlet called “The Colcha Stitch: Embroideries by Rebecca James.” A second booklet, with motifs from old colchas, is titled, New Mexico: Colonial Embroidery, by Carmen Espinosa. A third (book) is called, stitching rites: colcha embroidery along the northern rio grande by suzanne p. macaulay.

Rebecca James' booklet is a wonderful resource, in brief, that provides a brief history and directions on how to do this versatile type of embroidery. Her goal was to see that colcha work continue being done by artists, not copyists. In her introduction, she states:

Colcha embroidery began to degenerate after 1850 or 1860 due to the influence of new designs, store-bought patterns, commercially dyed yarns or threads. But this deterioration did not end that early --- proved by the fact that embroideries have been found using flour-sacking as foundation material as late as 1910.

More recently, a two volume set was discovered: Spanish New Mexico, edited by Donna Pierce and Marta Weigle and published by the Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe in 1996. This set of books handsomely represents “The Arts of Spanish New Mexico” and “Hispanic Arts in the Twentieth Century,” respectively. Many examples of colcha style designs can be viewed in Vol. 1 of this set, described in much more detail than is feasible here.

That same book compares the Colcha stitch to the basma stitch used in the creation of Jewish altar cloths. Additionally, the author compares the stitch to the bokhara stitch, used by Turks before conquest by Muslims. This information points to the fact that there is nothing new under the sun and that even ancients influenced each other, conceivably via trade.

Colchas can be one of two types: wool-on-wool, Sabanilla labrada, or wool-on-cotton which sometimes utilized spent dishtowels, feedsack, and recycled textiles (in the twentieth century). The condition of the foundation fabric did not really matter as the surface would eventually be covered completely. Those colchas provide the visual appearance of a rug, better suited for a wall decoration or couch cover, rather than a bed.

Others have designs that are visual units unto themselves. Motifs vary from flowers or animals to birds and geometrics and some designs reportedly show a distinctly Spanish influence.¹ Deer, roosters (a popular theme in Latin American Art) and stars were often the motifs of choice. Morning glory designs are also popular. A blog associated with "El Rancho de Las Golondrinas," A Living History Museum, shows a white sabanilla with isolated embroidered motifs that use the Colcha Stitch.

Since Spain has been influenced by art from many places, it is not surprising that Oriental, Persian, and Moorish designs show up in the colchas of New Mexico, not the least of which is the “Tree of Life.” Of course, some motifs are indigenous to the native populations of the state. The range of colcha-making extended into southern Colorado. One on-line source tells a story and mentions that originally, colchas did not feature figural renditions of saints until the 1930s, etc.

Church Inspires Altar-Cloth Making

Some colchas were made to adorn the altars of churches, and some of these still exist in private collections, none of them dated after 1850, and many well before that date.² Sabanillas, pure white woolen background material was the base upon which the decorative motifs of embroidery were worked. The word, sabanilla, has taken on many other textile related meanings.

Many extant items of Spanish Colonial Art reflect the deep religious beliefs of the artisans who make them. Today, las colcheras try to make their colchas in an authentic manner, according to Linda Esquivel, an artist from New Mexico with whom I spoke. Some spin the churro wool, and dye it, and others weave the wool of the same type of early looms used during the Spanish Colonial period.

"Teaching A Lost Art," is an online story, with photos, written by Kathaleen Roberts, published on July 25, 2008 by Journal Santa Fe. Julia Gomez, a teacher of colcha techniques is interviewed. The women who keep this dying art alive look forward to the prizes they win for their work at Spanish Market.

Stitches

Simple stitches of embroidery are used such as the Outline Stitch, Chain Stitch, French Knots, Buttonhole Stitch, and Long and Short stitch. The primary stitch is called the “Colcha Knot Stitch.” In addition to the other connections, previously mentioned, that stitch has been compared in other resources to the Bokhara stitch, a type of couching stitch, used universally, even in the Bayeaux Tapestry.

When I have executed this stitch in the past, I have simply called it a self-couching stitch. The Colcha Knot Stitch consists of laying parallel, long stitches and then tacking them, at intervals, beginning with the last stitch laid and working to the first, with the same thread. The stitch yields a textured appearance.

Dyes for the Wool Yarns

Dyes were collected from desert plants such as the chamisa bush and the canaigre plant. Yet others were traded, among them: indigo, cochineal, and brazil-wood chips.³

At the moment, I have no examples to show you, other than the one link. If you are a current colcha maker, or own an old colcha and can spare a photo, we would love to feature a photo. I have a feeling that I will be adding to this file.

For a little more information, see the website of the Spanish Colonial Arts Museum, Santa Fe:

I hope that you have enjoyed reading this overview about colchas, an ancient tradition of the southwestern United States. I really enjoyed the information in all of the resources I used for this article, but most especially, the two heavy volumes from the Spanish Colonial Arts Museum.

Footnotes

1 “New Mexico Colonial Embroidery,” 3. Information for this booklet was reproduced from the New Mexico Department of Vocational Education's booklet, “New Mexico Colonial Embroidery,” 1943, after permission was secured by the publisher.

2 Ibid., 3.

3 Op.cit., 4.