**2. The practice of embroidery in Atempa**

Some of the inhabitants of the municipality of Coyomeapan that serve as managers rely on the textile *maquiladoras* in the municipality of San Gabriel Chilac in the valley

of Tehuacan to bring work to the communities of their own region. They distribute assignments among the localities, which consist of making traditional patterns of flowers and animals on pieces of fabric. These patterns are then used to put together dresses in the workshops at Chilac. The work provider gives instructions for the product's creation, including techniques and materials. They give them the design or illustration of the patterns to be replicated in large quantities. However, they do not provide them with even the supplies (needles, threads, hoops and fabric) or technical knowledge, so each person invests in their own resources and goes with a member of their family or community for help with the task in case they were not already a master of it.

With a big assignment, the members of the family get together in a group effort. On some occasions, they also include the men. Although uncommon for men to do embroidery work, they still participate. Ramon, a member of the Campos family, Leticia's brother, assures that "if you're not in the fields, whether boy or girl, you learn to sew. One must help the family…otherwise we won't have anything to eat. Here everyone must work with cloth". (R. Campos, personal conversation, 24 of April 2021). Family support, in this sense, is essential to achieve the production goals promised to their employers.

Compared with other economic and productive activities, embroidery in Atempa seems to be a practice that bestows certain autonomy and comfort for the worker. They decide if they take on the job, the time they'll dedicate to each piece, and where they will work on it. However, they are not backed by any formal contract that establishes a relationship with their employer. The commitment is made orally, trusting in the word of both the employer and employee in terms of remuneration and how the product is to be delivered. There are no work benefits, nor is there any legal fiscal obligation with any party. As with other work that is made from home, the opposite of the supposed benefits found in this kind of work, there exists a system of control that defines the practices through determining deadlines, quality control, creative process, designs, technique and economic value for handiwork [5]. This explains the means of production: hurried, in family, within inadequate spaces, simultaneous with other duties, with low-quality materials and tools, and without active participation in the design development. The embroiderers are aware of the possibility that their work provider may stop visiting them for a time, depriving them of the income of said activity. Nevertheless, they know that the product they work on is profitable enough to have their labor requested for over 30 years, though intermittently, as part of their production chain.

Sewing is a practice that is transferred from generation to generation. Antonia learned to sew from her aunt Leticia; leticia was taught by her mother. Ramon shares his memories about his childhood in the company of his mother rooted in embroidering. He recalls that, at seven years old, she taught him to work sewing fabric and embroidering tablecloth. He boasts about the evolution of his technique that younger generations, like those of Antonia at 19 years old, do not learn so young anymore. This is attributed to the economic support provided by government social programs, whose conditions stipulate that children study and not work. Likewise, the parents of these families have prioritized they attend school until they are no longer beneficiaries of these programs. The young people that still preserve these practices can now access the web through their mobile phones and *Google* search embroidery techniques and design patterns that are different from those of San Gabriel Chilac. There are those that assure that they dedicate enough time to start their own businesses with these newly found designs.

## *A Hundred Stitches Make a Canvas: How the Practice of Embroidery Relates to Forms of Life… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105162*

Every two or three weeks, the manager collects the finished cloths from the different communities. They review the quality of the work and pay according to their agreement, be it \$20 to \$60 pesos per pattern varying by size, material, and complexity. They deliver the product to the workshops in Chilac, where the dressmaking families are then in charge of assembling the complete garment: blouses, *huipiles* or chanel-style dresses. Sometimes, the manager or other members of the same family are also dressmakers, reducing assignment product costs that would go towards the person in charge of commissioning the patterns in the localities. The complete garment is sold to small retail dealers from \$150 to \$300 pesos. The public resells them on the internet or in tourist areas across the country, and in these places, their selling price can start as low as \$150 pesos. The Campos family members assume their garments possibly end up as *artesanias* or souvenirs in the major cities throughout the country. They know that their target consumer is primarily national tourists and foreigners.

The description of the experience of embroidering by Leticia and Antonia is full of digressions. This evidences the practice's dialectical relationship with other practices. For example, Antonia, when sharing her personal experience about her embroidering, shies away from any direct descriptions that constitute her actions and explains the conditions of her personal health, which are made clear the moment she is there sitting while sewing. She narrates that she left school in her second year of middle school due to illness. She is not able to walk as an outcome. The school that she attended is situated in the auxiliary *junta* of San Juan Cuautla, a town about an hour away through dirt roads and pathways.

*The doctor told me that I could not overexert myself, so the teachers came. They insisted that I go back to studying. I told them that I could do the work from home, but they did not want it, because according to them, supervisory boards were coming to review them. And since I would not be there, they would mark me as absent. Well they did not give me a chance to study from home, and I told the teacher that were I permitted, I would go into school a couple of days per week, but they still would not allow it (A. Campos, personal communication, 14 of February 2020).*

**Figure 2.** *The practitioner's space.*

As a result of this situation, Antonia finds in her embroidery a way to collaborate with the needs of the family, adapting within the limits of her health. She can work from home, while the rest work the farms and fields. Additionally, she thinks that her embroidery allows her to continue her education in a more open format. She knows that, as opposed to the scholastic system, the practice can be done from anywhere (**Figure 2**).
