Zapotec Mexican rug – Navajo rug replica, 30″ x 60″, $149
This Zapotec rug replicates the classic Ganado Navajo rug, employing traditional Ganado rug colors: red, black, gray and white, and the typical border of black or red. An uncomplicated geometric design theme dominated by the serrate, or stair-stepped diamond, on a beautifully dark red background, characterizes a Ganado rug. In some pieces one diamond is drawn out from end to end; in others, three adjoining or interlocking diamonds fill most of the space.
In recent years, Zapotec weavers, indigenous to central Mexico, began reproducing simplified versions of Navajo textiles; that can be sold at a much lower price than a truly authentic Navajo rug or blanket. Zapotec weavers have their own tradition of rug and blanket manufacture that is even older than the Navajo. Most scholars of pre-Columbian and American Southwest history, believe that many of the geometric design elements one finds in the Navajo textile patterns have their origin in link with the Aztec and Zapotec cultures of central and southern Mexico. The southwestern United States and Mexico are not viewed as two culturally distinct regions; but as a heterogeneous yet unified cultural area, in which deep-rooted regional traditions are linked by common beliefs and art.
