San Gabriel Chilac is a handicraft town where many people embroider clothing for the national and international market. My first visit documenting the town was in 1993 and recently three visits in 2006. Few women still wear the traditional blouse.

There are two ways to add the design or "dibujo" to the blouse before it is embroidered. The original form is to draw it with a pen, however for commercial blouses this is costly, the stamps you see here were carved by the Mendoza family in the 1980´s, on my visit in May 2006, I found that the artisan had passed away. The embroidered yoke in the second picture is one of the pieces that is still drawn by hand.
Chilac is modernizing rapidly all the streets are now paved and electricity and water are now available as is access to the super highway to Puebla and Oaxaca.