We spent an amazing afternoon with good friends of Chuck, Tricia and Nora, Celestino Bautista and his family, in the Zapotec village of Teotitlan - about half an hour's drive from Oaxaca. They are rug weavers. The principal red color, which they vary with lime and more mysterious powders, is crushed cochinilla bugs. These bugs make their homes on the nopal cactus; the family harvests them and then grinds them on a stone to extract their precious blood for dying. A rug can take a couple of months to make, so no complaining about prices!
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