Weaving as Resistance

Saturday, February 7, 2026

Yes, it’s another sea day! Today was always going to be a sea day, so they have better activities than they have on an unplanned sea day. Still, I tend to skip most activities. We have such a great balcony, it would be a shame to waste it.

Photo by MayanHands.com

However, I couldn’t resist going to a lecture on “El Salvador, Guatemala, Oaxaca - Mesoamerican Cultural Corridor.” Anthropology has always fascinated me. The theater was packed. (Hooray! There are a lot of serious people on this cruise.) And the lecturer turned out to be excellent. (Double hooray!) Dr. William O. Beeman is a retired professor of cultural anthropology and linguistics from the University of Minnesota. I think Holland America excels at getting lecturers who actually know about and lecture about a topic that is relevant to the cruise itinerary. Dr. Beeman was well prepared, and he did not dumb down his material or his vocabulary.

The more well-known cultures that populated Mesoamerica were the Olmec, the Zapotec, the Mixtec, the Mayan, and the Aztec. The lecturer spoke briefly about each of these cultures, their similarities, and their differences. For example, the Mayans developed a written language, they had an elite ritual hierarchy, they practiced statecraft and diplomay, and they engaged in trade alliances. Jade was one of their most valued trade goods. The Mayan calendar was 365 days long. Their religious worldview held that time was cyclical. Key features of their understanding of the universe included cosmic balance, the sanctity of nature, and reverence for ancestors.

In what is now El Salvador, a group known as the Pipil (sounds like “Pea Peel”) represented the dominant culture from the 700’s to the 1500’s CE. It is believed that the Pipil migrated to El Salvador from Mexico in the 8th Century. At its peak, the Pipil population covered most of western El Salvador, as well as parts of Guatemala and Honduras. They traded textiles and cultivated cacao for trade and ritual purposes.

The Spanish conquest, in 1524, was a demographic catastrophe for indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica. Around 80% of the indigenous population succumbed to Western diseases. Those who survived often faced slavery, relocation, and forced Christian conversion. Many survivors fled to the mountains.

My ears perked up when Dr. Beeman mentioned textiles. He said traditional weaving, using backstrap looms, encoded history and cosmology. my ears perked up again when he reminded us that Mesoamerica gave the world chocolate.

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Now we will walk through the Lido buffet. There are two ugly three-dimensional mosaics we are not going to talk about. Instead, We will look at this whimsical ceramic installation. We could not find a plaque for it. Too bad. Are they ducks? Penguins? Platypuses? Is it the Olympics?

The evening show featured a clarinetist named Kenny Martyn. He opened with a Big-Band-style rendition of “Sweet Georgia Brown.” This is definitely not my music. I left after the interminable opening number.

Today’s fabric is traditional Mayan weaving. Mayan weavers would generally use cotton and would accomplish their weaving with a backstrap loom.

Backstrap loom: One end is tied to a tree or post.
The other end is attached to a strap that goes around the weaver’s back.
Photo by Laverne Waddington, at backstrapweaving.wordpress.com

From MayanHands.org: Myth has it that Grandmother the Moon, the goddess Ixchel, taught the first woman how to weave at the beginning of time.  .  .  . For centuries, Maya women’s weaving has been a form of resistance. Spanish priests and authorities colonizing the land that is now Guatemala burned Maya books and destroyed cultural artifacts. Using a hidden language of symbols and colors, Maya women documented and preserved stories and culture in their textiles.  .  .  . Today, wearing indumentaria maya (traditional handwoven Maya clothing) can still be an act of resistance. Maya women may face discrimination when they wear indumentaria, especially in professional spaces, but their choice is an expression of pride in Maya identity.

These Maya symbols represent ancestors. 
Although the design may appear to be embroidered, it is actually woven into the fabric. 
Photo from Mexicolore.co.uk

Photo from MayanHands.org