Book Reviews

Rousso, Kathryn (2010) Maguey Journey: Discovering Textiles in Guatemala, Universityof Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), xv + 192 pp. $35.00 pbk.

Rousso shares her delight in and respect for the maguey textile production industryand its artisans. Her narrative begins with a brief overview of her research project. Sheprovides a Small Planet like guide to Guatemala and travel therein. While her studyof maguey took her to other countries (Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Salvador), shecentres her attention and description on Guatemala. The first section of the book is ajournal-esque recap of her adventures in the field in search of practitioners of magueytextile production. Her first person narrative offers a view of the joy of discovery thatwould entice students in introductory anthropology or field methods classes to get out‘to the field’ to interact with culture bearers.

In the second section of the book, Rousso documents each stage in the productionof maguey textiles, beginning with the plant itself. She lists the wide range of termsapplied to the plant and to its fibres throughout the region of study and beyond to theCaribbean, Central America, and as far as Ecuador. She included references from Greekand Arabic, along with references to the Aztec pantheon and Maya ‘legends’. Thiseclectic approach to maguey-ity continues throughout the work. She links the stages ofproduction she observes to those seen by earlier anthropologists and travellers as wellas those documented by archaeologists.

Having covered the broad base of maguey cultivation, she then passes to the stagesof processing: fibre extraction, colouring, patterning, spinning of the fibres into threadsor ‘strands’, and weaving/knitting of the strands into textiles. Finally, she inventoriesthe variety of products made from maguey.

The final section of the book gives a brief description of the economics of magueyproduction and marketing. Her penultimate chapter, ‘Maguey in Transition’, recordsthe shrinking market share of maguey products, now in competition with nylon andplastic for bags, backpacks, ropes, and as stiffeners for woven belts. Despite herdocumentation of the decrease in the number of maguey producers, even in townsknown as maguey centres, and her observation that many children, though helping theirparents in production, are going to school and planning for other futures, she holdsout hope for the survival of the artisanry. She notes that in communities around LakeAtitlan and in the Poqomchi’ area, maguey weaving is being promoted and marketedto tourists as a ‘traditional’ art form. The ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ aspects of magueyproduction are highlighted; only vegetable dyes are used and demonstrated in co-opsparticipating in these revitalisation projects. Some groups are marketing via the internet,in an attempt to replace local sales lost to plastics.

Though Rousso is light on analysis, she is rich on detail. While she contrastsproduction strategies from ‘East to North’ (Chapter 5), she refrains from suggestingunderlying roots, in terms of either historical developments or cultural practices. Whilenoting that maguey producers are generally poor, she eschews comparison of thisproduction system with those of cotton or wool textiles or other endangered artisanries(ceramics, wood-working, mat production). Rather than suggest generalisations, Roussodetails the variation. Her report progresses from artisan to artisan, from town to town,without striving for integration. This is a celebration of the diversity and persistence ofmaguey textile production.

The book is enlivened by good photographs. Black and white images introduce us tothe people lovingly recalled in the narrative. In Chapter 10, ‘From Strand to Product’,we are also aided by clear drawings illustrating the patterns for knotting, interlacing,

© 2012 The Authors. Bulletin of Latin American Research © 2012 Society for Latin American StudiesBulletin of Latin American Research Vol. 31, No. 3 401

Book Reviews

knitting, weaving, looping and darning. Between pages 126 and 127 we are also treatedto a colour photo essay on maguey production, paralleling the chapters of the book,from cultivation through production to marketing. Readers of this book will not onlywant to start using maguey products, but will feel they know the producers personally.Students will also be inspired to apply for Fulbright scholarships in order to experiencetheir own journeys, if not through maguey, then through other cultural metaphors.

Judith M. MaxwellTulane University

© 2012 The Authors. Bulletin of Latin American Research © 2012 Society for Latin American Studies402 Bulletin of Latin American Research Vol. 31, No. 3