China poblana Outfit
Title
Subject
Mexican American women
Festivals—Mexico
Description
This outfit is a china poblana dress, used as a costume for traditional dances in Mexico. The blouse is white with floral and bird embroidery around the yoke and short sleeves. The skirt contains sequins and beadwork of a bird motif on the front. A decorative shawl usually completes the look. The dress itself was handmade in the Mexican state the donor’s family lived about 22 years ago and has remained in Genny’s family ever since. The outfit makes an appearance during special occasions both in Mexico and the U.S.
Although the china poblana now refers to the outfit, the term itself changed in meaning over time. The china poblana could indicate the folkloric outfit itself, a style of dress that appeared in certain areas of Mexico as early as the eighteenth century. It can also refer to the cultural icon of Mexican womanhood, one that has appeared over and over again in popular culture. This icon of Mexican femininity also meant different things to different people at different points in time. To some, she was the symbol of ideal Mexican womanhood, to others in the nineteenth century she represented loose morals. Some credit the popularization of the look to a near-apocryphal figure, Catarina de San Juan, whose existing hagiography described her as a South Asian woman enslaved and brought to colonial Mexico and was canonized after her death.
The representation of the china poblana here is that of an enduring symbol of Mexican identity and the clothes depicted here symbolize the wearer’s attachment to their roots. The eagle worked in beads on the skirt represents a bird long synonymous with indigenous Aztec roots.