La China Poblana

I learned this piece of history from a friend who I was in Oaxaca with this spring.  I love the cross-cultural apsects of it, and well as the idea that a really good idea can catch on in a big way, and be absorbed by another culture so completely it is as if it were it's own.

This is the story of the origins of the classic dress worn by Mexican women, particularly in the Puebla region of Mexico.  'La China Poblana'  translates roughly to 'The Chinese Woman of Puebla'.  legend has it and most historians more or less agree that she was a woman from India named Mirra, who dressed in the brightly colored saris of her native land (the fact that history knows her as Chinese is probably because they just didn't know any better--all Asians may have been assumed to be Chinese without knowing better--the Spaniards at sea should have known better, since they were traveling to India on a regular basis after Vasgez showed that it could be done a hundred years or so beforehand, but no matter).  She was kidnapped by Portuguese pirates and sold into slavery in no time, and changed

hands a time or two before she ended up in Puebla around 1620.   So, how did her dress spark a fashion craze? Historians say Mirra continued to wear her native saris over the years, but little by little adapted their designs to the culture of Mexico. Soon, her saris were sporting colorful flowers and even the country's classic eagle on a prickly pear cactus clutching a snake.

Her saris eventually morphed into what would become attire typically consisting of a short-sleeved blouse (much like the shirt worn under a traditional sari) with vibrant silk embroidery, a billowing skirt decorated with sequins and beads, a white, lace-trimmed slip that dropped below the skirt's hemline and a shawl woven from blue and white thread.

The "China Poblana look," as it came to be called, first captured the women of Puebla and then spread 80 miles northwest to become a hit in Mexico City and then in other parts of the country.