page_title: Guayabera
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Guayabera / History
caption_attribution_description: Español: Conjunto jaranero del ayuntamiento de Mérida en la Plaza de Santa Lucía, en Mérida, Yucatán, México.
context_page_description: The guayabera also known in Mexico as Camisa de Yucatán is a men's summer shirt, worn outside the trousers, distinguished by two vertical rows of closely sewn pleats running the length of the front and back of the shirt. Typically made of linen, silk, or cotton, and appropriate for hot or humid weather, guayaberas are popular in Cuba, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, South America, Southeast Asia, the south of Spain and Portugal.
context_section_description: The exact origin of the garment is unknown, although some sources attribute the shirt to the people of the Philippines who introduced the design to Mexico. Specifically, the design is believed to be from the lace-like white Philippine barong Tagalog, which has documented origins in the Philippines prior to the arrival of the Spanish. It made its way to Cuba through Mexico via the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade (AD 1565 to 1815).
  Some scholars dispute the Philippine origin based on perceived design differences. The barong traditionally does not have pockets and has an intricate U-shaped embroidery around the chest (the pechera) which is mostly absent in Cuban guayaberas. Guayaberas are also made from linen or cotton, and not the expensive piña or abacá sheer fabrics used in formal barong (although informal barong worn by the lower classes in the Philippines use common opaque fabrics like linen).
  However, guayaberas in Mexico also have chest designs like pleats and embroidery similar to the barong (and in contrast to Cuban guayaberas); and they can range from having no pockets, to having one, two, or four. This is the reason why Mexicans also claim that it originated from either the state of Veracruz or the Yucatán Peninsula. In Mexico, the same basic style is also known as the "camisa de Yucatán" (Yucatán shirt) or "wedding shirt".
  Regardless, a clearer line of evidence is that guayaberas are actually also referred to as "filipinas" in Yucatán, Mexico, with the former regarded as a variant of the latter. The only difference between the two is the type of collar used. Filipinas have a collar similar to the Nehru or mandarin-style (a style known as the baro cerrada in the 19th-century Philippines), while guayaberas have a more typical spread collar. Both filipinas and the derivative guayaberas were the traditional everyday men's shirts in Yucatán since the mid-19th century, before they were replaced by western shirts in the early 20th century. The white filipina shirt is still regarded as the traditional formal dress for men in Yucatán, along with the terno for women (cf. traje de Mestiza of the Philippines). In particular, white filipinas are the traditional shirts worn for the jarana Yucateca dance, paired with white trousers. This suggests an origin from the Philippines that entered Mexico early during the colonial period through Yucatán then to Cuba, where it was later adapted to local fashion and materials.
  Cubans also claim the guayabera originated from Cuba. Cuban literature refers to the shirt from 1893, and documentary evidence mentions the shirt in Cuba as early as 1880. The Cuban origin story tells of a poor countryside seamstress sewing large patch-pockets onto her husband's shirts for carrying guava (guayabas) from the field. In another version of the story, in 1709 Spanish immigrants from Granada, José Pérez Rodríguez and his wife Encarnación Núñez García arrived in Sancti Spiritus, located along the Yayabo River. José asked his wife to make him a shirt with long sleeves and four large pockets to store his cigars and belongings while he worked. Because it was easy to make and useful, it soon became a popular garment in use in that region. Another belief is that the name guayabera is said to have originated from the word yayabero, the nickname for those who lived near the Yayabo River in Cuba.
caption: Men wearing white filipina shirts in the traditional jarana Yucateca dance of Yucatán, Mexico
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