The story behind the international trade in Oaxacan textiles

Made in Mexico introduces us to the people, places, and ideas that create Zapotec textiles and give them meaning. From Oaxaca, where guides escort tourists to weavers' homes and then to the shops and markets where weavings are sold, to the galleries and stores of the American Southwest, where textiles are displayed and purchased as home decor or ethnic artwork, W. Warner Wood's ethnographic account crosses the border in both directions to describe how the international market for Native American art shapes weavers' design choices. Everyone involved in this enterprise draws on images of rustic authenticity and indigenous tradition connecting the Mexican nation to its pre-Hispanic past, despite the fact that Zapotec textiles are commodities through and through. Wood examines the production and consumption of Zapotec textiles through the social practices that give them value.