Removing fiber from henequen plants

Henequen mill, or desfibradora, with henequen blades, or pencas, stacked out front
Photo by Ruth McMurtry of Mérida

If there is one plant that could stand as the symbol of the Yucatan, it would have to be the Henequen plant, latin name. In tracing its story, the history of the Yucatan will be revealed in all its diverse layers. Although the peninsula is home to many fiber plants and although they have all played important roles, the henequen is the one plant that was there in the beginning --and still is.

Traditional Method:

on the ground, whack the pencas (leg-size, stiff, Henequen-plant leaves) to split the skin and loosen the fibers

strap the leaves to a flat board with twine, from one to four at a time

using a special rasping stick, press out the liquid and mucilage (Bending over with the board pressing into their stomach, resting at a 45 degrees or less angle, the man presses and pushes scraping along the leaf, to remove the pulp and short fibers. One leaf at a time, takes around four scrapes. More leaves, more times)

turn around the pencas and repeat the operation

wash the fibers

Mechanical Method:

bundles of henequen pencas, or leaves, tied with henequen twine, are loaded onto trucks (pulled by mules on little iron tracks traditionally called "decovilles" since they stamped with the name of the town in France where they were made)

trucks deliver the pencas to the milling factory or desfibradora by trucks

bundles are unloaded at the base of a vertical conveyor

at the top of the conveyor, workers stand on raised benches, untie the bundles, placing the twine over a wooden bar to be reused

pencas are conveyed down a large, shiny, brass chain to two drums that crush the leaves and beat the pulp while water is sprayed over them; then the pencas are flipped over and crushed, beaten and sprayed again (the pulp residue, bagasso, falls through the pressing area into bins that look like little dump trucks; when they are full, little mules pull these bins out to fallow areas where it is dumped to dry; it can be used as mulch; below the beating area, known as the decordicator, are little canals for carrying off the pulpy water; the smell is not pleasant)

when the remaining tough long fibers emerge from the other side, workers separate the fibers into handsize bundles, slide them down either a pipe or smooth wooden beam where they are placed on truks

truks are then pulled by little mules over the narrow tracks to the drying field (Drying fields are surrounded by stone walls to protect this precious commodity from fires)

The fiber dries in only a few hours (To preserve its clean white color it should not get wet)

The fiber is brought back to the factory storerooms where it is then pressed into huge bales held together with henequen twine