<em>Las Colcheras</em>: Spanish Colonial Embroidery and the Inscription of Heritage in Contemporary Northern New Mexico

Abstract

Colcha textile decoration was developed by Spanish settlers in colonial New Mexico. Today there is a resurgence of interest among New Mexican Hispanos in the maintenance and creative elaboration of this art form, which has come to symbolize heritage and collective identity. An examination of the colcha embroidery folk art movement and its narrative elaboration provides a revealing glimpse into the cultural politics of race, gender, and place in contemporary New Mexico. The careful replication of colonial tradition, from spinning and hand-dyeing wool to the reproduction of historic designs and stitches, is intimately bound up with discourses of value, authenticity, and Hispanic cultural persistence.