Rick Bayless is chef of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago, creator of Frontera gourmet foods, cookbook author and host of Mexico - One Plate at a Time.

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Art Collection: Arte Popular

Arte Popular (Yarn Paintings and the Huichol)


The yarn paintings were originally created as part of the Huichol Indian offertory ritual to beseech God to bestow them with rain and bountiful crops. The ritual objects and gourds were embellished by applying a thin layer of bees’ wax to an object and then painstakingly embedding the yarn into it. These objects were then utilized in a ceremony where they would be ritually destroyed.

Today, the Huichol (primarily centered in the Western states of Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Nayarit and Jalisco) use this art form to express their cosmology and to pay tribute to the spiritual world. One of the best-known Huichol popular symbols is the ojo de dios – originally a cross made of simple sticks that are then wrapped in colorful yarn to form a diamond shape.

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