"The story of San Antonio's beginnings, as told by anthropologist Sheldon Annis, provides a clue to the mystery. San Antonio began as a colony of slaves taken by Alvarado as he fought his way from Mexico City to Guatemala. Their heterogeneous origins are suggested in a letter to the Spanish Audencia Real in 1567. Included were Quiché from Utalán, Tzutujil from Santiago Atitlánm Kekchi from Alta Verapaz, Chontales from Tabasco or Oaxaca in southern Mexico, and Pipil from the Pacific coast of Guatemala. Annis suggests that the leveling of this population by disease and death probably hastened a pan-Maya acculturation process." (West 1992: 129)
These pan-Maya huipiles, or po't as they are called in Kaqchikel, are characterized by "multiple bands of geometric brocating -- some just to the waist, others to the garment edge -- and an emphatic placement of horizontal zigzags (which we read as the feathered serpent), usually across the chest. They also resemble trade huipils, which are characteristically adorned with multiple weft rows of geometric motifs" (West 1992:129). This po't is comprised of two panels or webs, woven on a backstrap loom by a woman within the Maya community of San Antonio Aguas Calientes in 1958 (according to the collector), features a black ground against which the tapestry woven multi-colored patterns vividly stand out. Just as West describes, zigzags predominate the decoration on this piece, appearing both horizontally and vertically. In the horizontal orientation, they are usually interpreted to be representations of the feathered serpent, especially when accompanied with the feather-like elements that appear on the purple zigzag on the green field mid-chest in this po't (West 1992: 97). Weavers from San Antonio Aguas Calientes call this pattern arco "arch" (West 1992: 98). When rendered vertically, zigzags are instead associated with lightning, storms, and rain (West 1992: 97). The po't is finished with sewn together sides, and green velvet trim accenting the neck and arm openings. This makes for a bold, vibrant top, one that a Kaqchikel woman would wear everyday.
