Piteado

Piteado is an artisanal technique, where pita or ixtle (thread made from the fiber of maguey, Agave Americana) is embroidered onto leather in decorative patterns. The technique is used to make belts, sandals, hair bands, saddles and other leather accessories and goods. Typical designs include flowers, animals, charreada, and Pre-Hispanic symbols. Piteado is particularly popular among the charro community.

Colotlán, a city in the northern extreme of the Mexican state of Jalisco, is famous for this type of handicraft. Nowadays, it is not the only place where piteado is made by hand as there are several communities creating handcrafted works in other mexican states like Hidalgo, Guerrero, Veracruz and Chiapas. There is a piteado industry in Guadalajara, Jalisco, that uses automated manufacturing techniques to make piteado products as well, however this industry faked the genuine products promoted in Guadalajara and made fraudulent versions of the handcrafted works traditionally done with threads of silver and gold.

Colotlán is home to approximately 40 talabarterías (leather shops) and is the main source of income for its inhabitants. Each workshop employs three types of workers, each dedicated to a specialized task: drawers, embroiderers, and “punteadores”.

The piteado industry in Colotlán produces mainly belts which are exported to the United States. A hand-embroidered belt requires about 48 hours of labor. However the raw material (The cactus Thread) used is produced in Veracruz, Chiapas and Oaxaca where the artisans from those regions make well finished and better elaborated piteado works, however, because the lack of promotion is often not possible to get to the right market. If there were a foundation that promoted the look of pinteado for innovations on this leather art and worked with researchers and universities to get the full properties of those cactus thread, embroidery techniques could be adapted to development of other items similar to these, such as high-end shoes and hand bags or harnesses for show horses. It is said that a less sophisticated form of this art came from Spain with the conquistadors and was alter developed to perfection by the indigenous peoples of Mexico.