Image 05_ sombrero vueltiao Zenú
sombrero vueltiao, a wide-brimmed hat originally designed to shield its wearer from the high suns of the Caribbean lowlands. (Image 06) Whereas the early sombrero vueltiao was uniformly white or beige in color, the contemporary high-contrast version incorporates both sun-bleached and mud-dyed leaves.
for another three to four days before repeating the entire dying process until the strips achieve an even shade of black. The two colors of strips are then woven into the braids which form the sombrero. The crown and the brim of the hat are made separately by hand and later tied together by a foot-driven sewing machine.
The making of a sombrero vueltiao is a multistep process which begins with caña flecha (wild cane), a tall grass native to the riverbanks and swamps of Central and South America. The Zenú first remove the veins and dry the leaves in the blistering sun until they turn from their original shade of green to a muted white or beige. This is where the first process stops. In order to impart color, they then soak some of the strips in a sandfree mud bath for three to four days, wash them in cold water, and boil them with vija—another wild plant—for at least two hours. The craftsmen leave the mud-stained strips to dry in the sun
Like the Arhuaco and Wayúu peoples, the Zenú interpreted their creative process as a smallscale representation of their lives on Earth. Weaving brought together the knowledge of their craft and the fibers of their land to yield a functional finished product. In recent years the sombrero vueltiao has captured the attention of the Colombian elite, and the hat—traditionally, a humble accessory limited to the coastal peasant population—is now widely accepted as the ultimate symbol of the country at large.