For the capital of craft of Colombia and the whole Atlantic coast, San Jacinto is a town of rather modest appearance. Monotonous rows of one-storey dusty houses, tucked in the bent of the road 25 that runs from Barranquilla on the coast all the way down to Medellín, are a home to barely 28 thousand inhabitants.

All along the road, which serves as town’s main marketplace, hangs a motley of the jewels of the local craftsmanship – handmade hammocks, bags, sombreros, tablecloths, sandals and curtains. The very same road takes them up and down the country, where they are sought after for their quality and style.

San Jacinto was funded in 1776 by Don Antonio de La Torre y Miranda, a captain of the Spanish Infantry. However, the history of the settlement goes some two thousand years back when a powerful empire of the Zenú (or Sinú) people started to emerge in the basins of the rivers Sinu and San Jorge.

Around 200 BCE farmers and goldsmiths inhabiting the valleys of the numerous rivers of the area started taking control of the seasonal floodings by covering 500,000 hectares of land with a complex irrigation system. Artificial canals carried the nutrient-rich sludge many kilometres away from the natural waterways, providing for a rapid population growth, increase in wealth and advances in technology and art.

Zenú remained the dominant group in the region for over thousand years, developing an intricate material and spiritual culture. They were organised in towns governed by local lords, who in turn paid tribute to caciques ruling over three regions. One was Finzenú, with it’s main city Zenú – considered the capital of the whole tribe – a region stretching down to the hilly Montes de Maria, where San Jacinto is located today. There was also Panzenú – in San Jorge river plains, and Zenufana in the gold-rich lower Cauca region.

The Zenú Culture

The importance of the web of canals that lay at the foundation of the tribe’s prosperity is clearly visible as it manifests itself in their art, craft and symbolic thinking – the structure of the canals is symbolically reflected in the patterns of fishing nets, textiles, wickerwork, pottery vessels and goldwork.

The Zenú imagined the universe as a massive wicker-work on which they were living their lives. Weaved baskets, vessels decorated with net designs or goblets with weave motifs carved into the clay – all bear witness to the role the weave played in different aspects of the Zenú culture. They were particularly renowned as goldsmiths with semi-filigree being the most characteristic feature of their work – these decorations were cast using the lost wax method, rather than woven with gold threads as many other decorative elements.

By the year 1100 the population of the Zenú tribe began to decline for unknown reasons and when the Spanish found them they had already abandoned their irrigation systems and lived on higher pastures in the south. Their language disappeared some 200 years ago and there’s not much left of the rest of their culture.

The Evolution of the Hammock

In Señora Gladys’ youth all the hammocks in San Jacinto were made exclusively of cotton, using yarn that was spun locally using a traditional spindle. The colours were limited to white and blue and stripes – the only pattern made by the weavers. Gradually more dyes were made available and the rainbow stripe hammock was born, which is considered a trademark of San Jacinto today

The real revolution came in the 70’s though when the acrylic yarn appeared and as its price slowly became more accessible it took over the production. As its colours are much more vivid and practically don’t fade at all over the years it became the fabric of choice for most weavers. It also brought a real explosion of their skills, allowing them to experiment with more elaborate and lavish designs that we see today.