The Eyes of the Weaver: Los Ojos Del Tejedor Book

Cristina Ortega shares with children her memories of visits with her grandfather who taught her how to weave when she was ten years old.

Children's Literature

Imagining that a little girl named Cristina learns to weave from her grandfather, the author tells a story based on the very real master weaver, Juan Melquiades Ortega. Cristina moves to her grandfather's house in Chimayo, New Mexico, where she experiences many traditional ways of doing things: cooking garden-grown food, weaving by the natural light, and waking up with roosters. She works well, completing a Chimayo blanket called a conga. But the conga is stiff compared with the first blanket Grandfather made long ago; nevertheless, he gives the old conga to his granddaughter saying that, with practice and patience, she too has the gift to become a master weaver. It is refreshing to see that the child's work is honored. The child reader will understand that to be a great weaver takes devotion, care, and time. Garcia's luminous pastels present the Southwest countryside's beauty with elegance. While her hand with the people in the story is less, the pictures reveal details of Grandfather's house and gardens and the tools of the weaving trade. Text includes numerous Spanish words, understandable in context without being retranslated, accompanied by a glossary. Together, pictures and text create a memorial to an outstanding weaver, a practical glimpse into the way weavers work, and a view of traditional life in a contemporary village high in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico.