Hilda started weaving when she was 11 years old. Like many in the Zapotec artisan community of Teotitlán del Valle, she began when her mother assigned her simple tasks such as making thread bobbins or helping to assemble the warp on the looms.
At the age of 12, she made her first rug. Hilda feels very proud of having learned from her mother - the craft has been passed down through more than 4 generations of women in her family.
Although she is a master at natural dyes, the process that she likes the most is the weaving itself. She finds the process of the patterns appearing on the loom very interesting, and when she finishes weaving a tapete she sees it as the achievement of a personal challenge. She loves "rising" designs where the threads generate shapes like triangles or diamonds.
For her, being a weaver from Teotitlán is a great source of pride and passion, because her roots and her identity are involved. Everything she creates not only reflect her knowledge of the craft, but the history of all the generations behind her.
