Alfombra (Carpets)

Over Easter week the city of Comayagua puts on beautiful processions that represent each of the Stations of Christ. For the station of Christ's crucifixion many families participate in making alfombra's (carpets made out of colored sawdust) for Christ's tour throughout the city. It was a very great honor for us to be able to participate in the preparation and laying of the carpet since many locals haven't even done so themselves.

The first step in the process is preparing the sawdust for color. We spent several nights simply sifting a huge pile of wood chips/sawdust so that only the fine particles remained.

The second step was to color the sawdust. Over a bonfire water is heated, pigment is added and then the scalding hot liquid is poured over the top of a mound of sawdust. From there everyone digs in to mix it with their hands. It was pretty fun to look like Oompa Loompa's after several of the orange colored dies. Brett and Tina really enjoyed mixing the brown colors because it was the closest thing they had to a tan thus far. When we got to the black we were surprised that motor oil is used to add color. We did end up using gloves for this part, which I was happy of.

To make the color blue we had to clean out hundreds of eggshells, add blue die and vinegar, strain them and then let them dry in the hot sun for the next couple days.

After all the colors were mixed we all began working on the stencils for the borders of the carpet. The Quan Family was nice enough to incorporate some of Nikki's ideas.

The way the main pictures are chosen each year for the Quan Family carpet is through family members submitting images they find in the newspaper or online throughout the year to the head of the household and then he makes the final decision on which images will be used. Pictures are chosen based on the strength of their message.

After a week and a half of sifting and dying sawdust it was finally time to lay down the carpet. We had to start at 11PM after the night's procession had passed. We began by sweeping the streets to clear it of the garbage that accumulated throughout that day, chalked in the lines that gave us our boundaries for each carpet and then began the process of laying the base layer of sawdust.

After the base layer was prepared the artist drew each picture free hand with a stick.

From there we were able to fill in the shapes with their designated colors.

Once the pictures were completely filled in and final touches made, the boarders were placed around the two smaller carpets to meet the size of the two main, larger images.

Finally, after 10 to 11 hours of work we completed the carpet. The results were well worth all the hard work we put in that night and the week and a half prior.

While we waited for the procession that would bring Jesus bearing the cross, we went around to see all the other carpets that were made that night.The longest carpet was located by the cathedral.

The image of Mother Mary was chosen for this specific carpet in remembrance of the statue that once resided in the monastery across from the cathedral that unfortunately burned to the ground in late 2009.

After all the carpets were completed we waited around from the roof top of a building above our carpet so that we could see the procession and the destruction of our beautiful carpet when it arrived. That moment would be a bitter sweet for us. Bitter because all the hard work we had just done would be undone and sweet because we really needed to get out of the sun. The procession was late coming through and we were told "it will be here in one hour" then an hour would pass and they would tell us "it will be here in one hour". Needless to say we were burnt to a crisp by the time it came through.

We really enjoyed the opportunity to work with the Quan Family to make the second largest and the most traditionally constructed carpet in Comayagua. Many families/associations incorporate grain, seeds, glitter or used stencils to make their carpets but the Quan Family has always held to tradition and feel that the pictures in basic form convey the meaning of their images without all the extras. We had a wonderful time working together and were invited to come back next year to assist with another masterpiece.