* * *   B A S K E T S   * * *
of the Mercado Area
Baskets in Merida, Yucatan
At Mercado La Fama in Mérida, Yucatán; photo by Ruth McMurtry of Mérida
Here are some Mexican-Spanish words often heard in the mercado's basket-weaving circles:

In our "Profile" section, Francisca García Peralta, from San Luis Amatlán, Oaxaca, does a beautiful job describing the weaving of baskets, and explaining how each design has a name. In case you'd like to visit a town specializing in woven baskets, here are some of the best known:

The process of weaving hats using plant fibers is basically the same as weaving baskets -- just with the end results fit over the head and have brims. One of the two main hat-weaving regions of Mexico is the Mixteca Alta region, the highland area occupied by Mixtec Indians, covering parts of Puebla, Oaxaca, and Guerrero. The other hat-weaving region is the Yucatán Peninsula, especially in Becal, Campeche, where Panama hats, also known as jipi-japas, are made of a fine-fibered palm.

In certain lakeside and riverside communities, such as Tzintzuntzan on Lake Pátzcuaro and towns along the Río Lerma in Mexico State, mats are woven of dried, ironed blades of tule, a name applied indiscriminately to cattail and similar marsh plants such as papyrus-like species of the genus Cyperus.