China Poblana

China Poblana, a style of dress worn by Mexican women in Puebla from the sixteenth through the late nineteenth century. The word china has little to do with China. China poblana was originally the name given to domestic servants but also was used to refer to a pulque seller, a woman who wrapped cigars, a laundress, or a prostitute. A china poblana was distinguished by her ornate style of dress, which was distinct from indigenous and European upper-class modes. Her skirt of colorful, sturdy wool was dotted with sequins of gold and silver. Cinched at the waist and very wide at the bottom, it covered billowing petticoats and was complemented by ribbons, silk stockings, and satin slippers. Her finely embroidered blouse was immaculately white. She wrapped a rebozo around her arms and coiffed her abundant hair in thick braids, interwoven with colored ribbons and gathered on the top of her head by a fine comb. She completed her costume with long gold earrings and fine bracelets. She did not merely walk. She sauntered with elegance and arrogance along the streets.

The popular image and inspiration for the China poblana dress style derives from the life and legend of Catarina de San Juan (c. 1607–1688). Although she was born into an aristocratic family in India, Catarina was baptized and sold into the slave trade before arriving in New Spain. Considered a visionary, Catarina not only achieved sainthood, but also became an important symbol of mestizo womanhood and the city of Puebla, where a monument of La China Poblana stands.

During the Wars of the Reform, the china poblana became a national symbol, accompanying her husband into battles and adorning her costume with tricolor ribbons. Although her dress fell into disuse in Puebla in the 1880s, it has preoccupied writers and poets as material for legend and folkloric color since the colonial period. Stylizations of the dress are still used in festivals, especially in central Mexico. The tricolor skirt with an eagle embroidered in sequins is one of the best-known versions.

See alsoMexico, Wars and Revolutions: The Reform .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Artes de México. La china poblana. México, D.F.: Artes de México, 2003.

Cordero y Torres, Enrique. Historia compendiada del estado de Puebla, vol. 2 (1965).

Lavín, Lydia, and Gisela Balassa. Museo del traje mexicano. México, D.F.: Editorial Clío, 2001.

Myers, Kathleen Ann. Neither Saints Nor Sinners: Writing the Lives of Women in Spanish America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Puente, R. Carrasco. Bibliografía de Catarina de San Juan y de la china poblana (1950).

Santamaría, Francisco J. Diccionario de Mejicanismos (1959).

Vigil, Angel. The Eagle on the Cactus: Traditional Stories from Mexico/El águila encima del nopal: Cuentos tradicionales de Mexico. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2000.

                                       Mary Kay Vaughan