The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-10-04
Mexican Habits.

Women with heavy burdens on their
backs, unmindful of either dust or sun
heat, slip every now and then along
the paseo. They are all bound for the
same place-the city market-witht their
loads of green produce. They are bare
headed, many of them are barefooted,
bareleggGd and barearmed. Now and
then one, with fifty pound weight on
her back, has a fifteen pound baby in
her arms. Or, if the burden is smaller
and the child larger, the former is car
ried in the arms and the latter on the
back, sitting in sort of cradle orepouch
of cloth attached to the mothers Shout
ders, its bare legs bestriding her side
and its brown armes clasping her shout
ders or vainly clutching the air. Labor
ing women invariably carry their infants
thus upon their backs, revealing their
Indian descent and character at a
glance. The garment used for this i'm
provised cradle is generally the familiar
zebozo, the only outer clothing worn by
girls and women of the lower order in
this country. 1t is plain strip of some
dark material doubtless cotton-two
or three yards long and not over one
yard wide. The zebozo is worn much
as a Northern woman throws a shawl
over her head and shoulders for a mo-.
ment's run out doors, 1t is both head
dress and outer garment for the upper
part of the person. Thrown back from
the head, but retained by the ends in
front, it may be couch for child or a
sack for considerable bundle. On the
street and the plaza, in the market and
at church, zebozos may be counted at
any hour of the day by scores and even
by hundreds. Many travellers do not
admire their appearance, but they seem
to me graceful and attractive. Women
of the Indian race are seldom seen
without them, and for aught L know,
they sleep and are buried in them. For
the rest, one cotton upper garment and
cotton skirt or two complete the
feminine outfit. The men wear only
cotton shirts and cotton pantaloons
Bare feet are vastly more numerous
than those clad with sandals or shoes
The men wear a similar, but heavier,
warmer and often gaudy wrap, the
serape, or szarape. This is a sort of
blanket, often costly. 1t is worn much
like a shawl, the outer ends being
brought from behind over the right
shoulder, carried in front of the person
and thrown over the left shoulder, where
it hangs fast as if glued. How the
serape is prevailed on to stay in place
is one of the great Mexican mysteries.
1t is not fastened, at least ordinarily,
but somehow or other it stays in place.
The serape is worn more in the colder
North than here. 1t is one of the most
striking objects in the field of vision at
Chihuahua. A dozen men digging for
horse railroad track, with red and
white blankets thrown loosely over their
shoulders, as if they had just crawled
out of bed and forgotten to leave the
covering behind them, is a comical
sight. witnessed such spectacle in
a rural city the other morning. The
bright, inconvenient trapping appears
less out of place in the afternoon sun at
gay bull fight. The serape, zebozo
and leather sandal distinguish Mexican
low life. The sandal is simply piece
of leather, cut to initiate roughly the
shape of the foot, and held in place by
coarse thongs which pass over the foot
and around the instep. Mexicans of
the upper class, of both sexes, wear
clothing which rivals in richness and
taste the best efforts of the tailors of St.
Louis, London or Paris. The world
contains no gentlemen and ladies more
faultlessly dressed or better bred than
they.-C0r. ST. Louis Globe Democrat