Santa María del Río rebozo

It is a rebozo from one town, made one way. Mexico’s Secretaría de Cultura describes it like this: the threads are tied and dyed before weaving, the cloth is woven on a backstrap loom (telar de cintura) with patterned bands between plain stripes and a cotton weft, and then the finished cloth goes to another woman, who knots the fringe. The same record lists three fibers (cotton, silk and artisela) and three sizes, called ratón, mediano and grande.

Wikipedia’s rebozo article says the same town is known for finely woven rebozos, especially in silk and rayon, and that it uses various browns as a local signature. Santa María del Río holds a rebozo fair every August.

A Santa María rebozo is a regional style, not a separate garment. For the garment itself, the shop has a short page on what a rebozo is, and this school has a longer one on rebozo history and uses.

In Spanish, rebozo de seda means a silk rebozo. In Santa María del Río, the fiber word on a listing matters more than the town name.

1. Wind and warp. The silk or artisela is wound, laid out on a warping frame (urdidor), and the design is marked on it.
2. Tie. The parts that should stay undyed are tied tightly with cotton thread. This is jaspe, the Mexican name for ikat.
3. Dye and untie. The threads go into hot dye, dry, return to the frame, and are untied with a small knife.
4. Weave. The cloth is woven on the backstrap loom, alternating patterned bands with plain stripes.
5. Knot the fringe. The ends go to a specialist, an empuntadora, who finger-knots the fringe, the rapacejo. Locally this step is called empuntado.

Natural dyes were the old way: indigo (añil) for blue, cochineal for carmine, iron for black, and a lichen called barbilla for browns. The barbilla dye gave its name to the brown rebozo de barbilla, also called de olor for its scent. The culture ministry notes a course in 1993 to recover natural dyes; synthetic dyes are also used.

México Desconocido calls the backstrap loom the prehispanic way, and the town one of the few places still weaving rebozos on it. It is not the foot-pedal loom, the telar de pedal.

Mexican sources call Santa María del Río the birthplace of the rebozo de bolita, woven in blue and white. Cri-Cri sang about it in “La patita”: con canasta y con rebozo de bolita. Wikipedia adds that the caramelo is woven there.

Other local designs are de barbilla (brown), pinto abierto (blue, white, black and brown) and palomo (black and white). México Desconocido reports that many old names have given way to numbers: 1 is de bolita, 2 is caramelo (seven colors), 3 has S-shaped frets, 4 is pinto abierto, 5 has swords or arrows, 6 has facing birds, and 10 has a wide fret. A rebozo, the same article says, always has a design and more than one color; a one-color piece is a chalina.

The weaving is passed on in a rebozo school-workshop, the Escuela de Rebozo and Taller-Escuela de Rebocería, and in family workshops. Sources date the workshop to the early 1950s: the state museum record gives 1952, and Spanish Wikipedia says Daniel Rubín de la Borbolla set up a rebocería workshop in 1953. In 2001 Mexico’s Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes, in folk arts and traditions, went to the town’s reboceras and reboceros.

Visitors can see the work at the Museo Casa del Rebozo, run by the San Luis Potosí state culture department, where artisans weave on backstrap looms. In October 2026 the department listed the workshop as open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 16:00. Check before you travel.

No. Lola My Love sells cotton rebozos, handwoven by artisans on a foot-pedal loom in Mexico. They are not silk, not backstrap-woven, and not from Santa María del Río. I will not borrow this town’s name for our cloth. If you want a working cotton rebozo for labor, babywearing or postpartum, browse our cotton rebozos. If you want a Santa María silk or artisela piece, buy from the town’s weavers.