In the Museum of Anthropology and History, in Mexico City, carefully tucked within its ethnographic collection is an Indigenous textile sewn during the 18th century, catalogued as the “Huipil attributed to Malinche.” The term huipil comes from the Nahuatl uipilli and has no known etymology. The piece was restored in 1998 by the textile workshop at the National Institute of Anthropology (INAH)’s Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía. According to the catalogue card, this huipil is made of:
three vertically joined panels woven in plain weave on a backstrap loom. The adornment is made of tapestry, brocade and embroidery. It is adorned with brocade on the neck, breast and interior friezes. Sections of polychrome thread stand out, decorated with bird feathers and plumed thread. The thread was probably made on a spindle or winch, a procedure used similarly today by Indigenous weavers in different regions of the country (Museo Nacional..., Piece of the month).
The huipil is made primarily of cotton (Gossypium Hirsutum L.) a very valued fiber in pre-Hispanic times, used to produce clothing for the elites and given over as tribute. The huipil is attributed to Malinche because of a picture on the Tlaxcala Panel (fol. 6), which shows a woman in a wide and richly decorated garment. The garment held by INAH has the traditional characteristics of Mesoamerican huipiles: structured with two or three woven panels; small rectangular textiles to mark the opening for the head; lateral openings for the arms. The sizes, width and length are variable and depend on where they are made, but most were wide and long. The length of the Malinche huipil is a half a leg (1.08 meters length by 1.40 meters wide); it is cut widely enough to cover arms and wrists. According to Irmgard W. Johnson, this wide cut is also found in Oaxaca.
The huipil we are concerned with combines several weaving techniques: plain, tapestry, weft brocade and embroidery. The fabric is sewn together with linen thread, a fiber that was imported to the American continent during the 16th century. It has white and light brown cotton stripes (coyuchi) and decorations on the breast, shoulders and interior borders, which indicates that it was a luxurious garment. There are other fabrics equally as precious as cotton on the brocades and embroidery: wool and silk, and cotton braided or twisted with bird feathers. Silk, another foreign fabric, was used on the border of the neckline. As if this weren’t enough, the wool was dyed with natural dyes from different parts of Mexico, such as indigo, red from the cochineal insect, zacatlaxcalli (a parasitic yellow ivy) and purple snail (a Murex gastropod mollusk).
The iconography is rich and full of symbolism, given the colors and elements represented. The brocade shows zoomorphic figures, and geometric ornaments originating from several Mesoamerican regions, such as diamonds, lines and notches. In the same vein, plant-like elements were embroidered onto the garment. Some who have studied the garment have interpreted its creation as a metaphor of mixed races, given the materials used and native elements and others not of American roots, such as the two-headed eagle, which is a European element, on the front and back. The eagle is a heraldic symbol in royal houses in Spain and part of the European Hapsburg lineage. Others propose that the hybrid being alludes to the duality of man-woman. Among current Otomi people, the two-headed eagle is considered to be an ancestor who created the Sun and the Moon, linked to therapeutic and agricultural rituals and to knowledge of textiles. During the 16th century, even, this symbol could be interpreted as an alliance between the new Spanish power and the Otomi group.