Many of you are familiar with the beauty of textiles created from violet-toned threads woven by women of the Oaxacan coastal villages of Pinotepa de Don Luis and neighboring San Juan Colorado. After buying skeins from local indigenous dyers, they turn them into traditional wrap-around skirts (posahuancos) and blouses (huipiles) for their own use, as well as highly appreciated collectors’ pieces. But few people know that the dyeing technique goes back a thousand years and, but for the urgent efforts of a handful of people, could disappear in a few decades.

The rich violet hues of these textiles depend upon the secretion of a sea snail known as caracol púrpura (Plicopurpura pansa). For almost 1000 years -- when the Mixtec are said to have arrived on the coastal plains and hills and established Tututepec as their capital -- the Mixtec have been coming to the practically uninhabited bays of coastal Huatulco to dye their cotton with these snails. Found on the rocky embankments, caracol púrpura live right above the water and move with the tides. At a certain time, date unconfirmed, the Mixtec of Pinotepa de Don Luis became the sole dyers, travelling 270 kilometers (160 miles) on foot to the region to supply 500 weavers who wove the skirt with special designs for 14 villages.

Nearly 40 years ago a serious threat arose to this longstanding indigenous tradition. In 1983, while I was working in the Mexican Federal Government’s Office of Popular Arts and Culture, we received a “tip” that a group of Japanese entrepreneurs was hiring local non-indigenous fishermen to dye Japanese silk skeins using caracol púrpura. The fishermen taunted the Mixtec, bragging that the Japanese company was about to receive a 20-year concession. A group of 24 specialized Mixtec dyers from the village of Pinotepa de Don Luis became increasingly uneasy at the news of Japanese investment. They realized that, not only were both groups competing for the same resource, but even worse the larger snails that provide greater amounts of secretions with higher dye yield were being decimated and rapidly disappearing.

First Steps in Addressing the Problem. When this situation came to our attention, little was known about the Mixtec’s dyeing with púrpura. Textile researchers, including Donald and Dorothy Cordry and Irmgard W. Johnson, had reported that Mixtec dyers were from Pinotepa de Don Luis and only dyed 5-6 months a year, from October to March.

This was the beginning of what has been a 38-year project, still ongoing thanks to the long-term relationships with Habacuc Avendaño Luis, President of the Tintoreros coop and biologist Javier Acevedo Garcia, a young student at the outset of this collaboration. Tintoreros Mixtecos del Caracol Purpura, SC de RL is the dyer's coop legally constituted in 1988 with the purpose of securing exclusive rights and access to dye in the area that came to be decreed Huatulco National Park. 

The Project’s First Five Years. At the outset there was a near absence of scientific information describing the caracol púrpura’s life cycle, growth patterns, or the biological function of the dye; nor was there an understanding of indigenous knowledge. From 1983-1988 our biologists contributed essential data. The first two years they spent 15 days in Huatulco, followed by 15 days in Mexico City to process information.

The outcome of this research was a pioneering scientific and ethno-scientific study that allowed us to spearhead public policy. in 1988, before I left Culturas Populares. Púrpura became protected as a natural resource, and the Mixtec were awarded exclusive rights to its use in Huatulco. This was based on their admirable 1000-year-long resource management plan which included: milking the snails; working only from November to March when the species begin their reproductive period; and returning to the area every lunar cycle of 28 days for maximum dye yield.

Subsequent Developments. What has ocurred over the last decades? The dyers received the National Arts and Science Award in 1985 for their traditional knowledge, and a documentary won an Ariel award. At the same time the Federal Tourism Ministry created the mega-tourism development program, “Bays of Huatulco,” resulting in development of 10 of the 20 bays. It took 10 years and enormous effort to create the Huatulco National Park, amidst lobbying that the Mixtec’s exclusive access to the area be upheld.

Despite these successes, many problems persist. The púrpura population never recovered due to the actions of Japanese investors in the 1980s; the púrpura was reduced by half and the larger female púrpura specimens, whose dye yield is highest, were destroyed. In addition, the Huatulco Bays tourism program cut in half the number of bays the dyers can visit. And the biggest tragedy is that poaching has increased, and the carnivorous púrpura snails, together with their most important food – known locally as lengua de perro (dog’s tongue) -- are collected, cut into small pieces, and sold as “snail-cocktail” in the local market.

Inconsistent Conservation Strategies. Conservation strategies repeatedly have been revised, since preserving púrpura and its culture has not been a high priority for the government agencies. Huatulco’s population depends 100% on tourism. The life and activities of the Mixtec are not central to this enterprise, because they do not go into the town itself but travel along the coast where the National Park is.

Although there was a positive impact on re-population of caracol púrpura in the early 2000s, due to a combination of the new National Park and careful supervision, currently the low numbers of 1987 -- when the Japanese-hired fishermen were unsupervised -- have returned. The July 2020 earthquake, with Huatulco at the epicenter, further complicated matters. Over time, active dyers have dwindled from 24, to 18, to 15, with only nine actively functioning, each dyeing per season a mere 2-3 skeins of 200-250 grams. To compound the problem there are illegal dyers.

Current and Future Preservation Efforts. Nonetheless, there are a number of recent and planned future efforts to preserve the púrpura. Since 2017 local radio spots are employed to thwart poaching, funded by the dyers’ grants and private donors like Los Amigos del Arte Popular (LADAP). A calendar has been printed and distributed among small restaurants on the beach, or palapas, to discourage harvesting or consumption of the snails.

A group of local fishermen who belong to a fishermen-farmer’s coop in San Agustin at the edge of the National Park contacted the Púrpura Coop and our group to plan a joint eco-tourism project: creating a Púrpura Sanctuary and generating information and joint conservation efforts. They will police the area and dyers will organize demonstrations. We just held a workshop in late May with the bay that is planning to create a Visitor’s Center to strengthen their eco-tourism project.

As a result of a recent web page project (2020-2021), we created a task force named “Caracol púrpura: Tradición y Ciencia” (Púrpura Snail: Tradition and Science). It is composed of 2 biologists who are still actively monitoring the species along the Pacific coast, myself, and Don Habacuc Avendaño Luis and his sons Rafael and Juan to do interviews and produce materials for the page. 

Front: Juan Avendaño López, Habacuc Avendaño Luis (President of the Tintoreros Coop), Rafael Avendaño Luis, Biologists Javier Acevedo García and Delia Dominguez Ojeda

As stakeholders mobilize and greater conservation awareness develops, there can be a future for púrpura in Huatulco. The Islas Marias islands off the coast of Mazatlán, used as a penal colony for 100 years, has been vacated and declared a national park. Delia Dominguez, a PhD in Conservation Biology and a member of our team, has a permit to do a first resource assessment in late June. It is possible that the Islas Marias could turn into a púrpura dyeing haven and sanctuary for the Mixtec dyers, as it will remain unused except as a naval outpost, youth conservation camp and destination for day visits. Another positive note is that the Ministry of Environment has programmed a meeting June 21st, 2021 with the Dyers’ coop, the task force, and the legal and wildlife directorate to analyze permits and strategies.

Finally, an educational video featuring the dangers to this 1000-year-old tradition -- “2020: On the Path of Extinction of the Púrpura Culture in the Bays of Huatulco” -- is available on youtube: https://youtu.be/OMTCt4S2cOU