Hidden Threads of Peru: Q'Ero Textiles

Hidden Threads of Peru: Q'Ero Textiles by Rowe, Anne Pollard. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781858941486.

Qero is an isolated indigenous community in southern Peru, on the eastern slope of the Andes. In this harsh environment, a rich and complex textile tradition, the chief artistic expression of the Qero people, has endured from pre-Hispanic times. Woven from the hair of local alpacas, the colorful shawls, ponchos, bags, and other textiles produced are worn daily and form part of the rituals and ceremonies of Qero. Examining the textile traditions that are distinctive to Qero within those of the Cuzco area in general, Hidden Threads of Peru combines ethnography, anecdote, and textile art to offer fascinating new insights into a culture that can trace its traditions back to the Inca empire. The Qero people themselves discuss the significance of the fabrics they make and the nature of their Andean life, while photographs taken from the early twentieth century to the present day illustrate the daily life and rituals of the Qero people, as well as-in sumptuous full color-the textiles themselves, revealing the evolution and range of patterns over a one-hundred-year period.