Cultivating Color
This little-known Mexican insect has made its mark on international fine art, cuisine, and beauty for generations
Text and images by Molly Ferrill
Only three insects in the world have been domesticated for commercial use: The honey bee, the silk worm, and the cochineal. By far the least well known of the three, the cochineal is a small insect that is harvested to produce a strongly pigmented red dye. The insect’s body contains a large quantity of carminic acid, which protects it from predators in the wild and has a strong red color. The insect has been cultivated in Mexico since people of the ancient Toltec civilization began to use it for decoration in the 10th century. Transported on early merchant ships between Mexico, Europe, and Asia, the cochineal and the products derived from it have been integrated into a variety of industries and art forms throughout the world. The cochineal is now used internationally to color food, alcohol, makeup, lab samples, fabric, and fine art paintings among other items.
Prickly pear cactus plants or “nopales” grow in the fields of Tlanepantla outside of Mexico City. The plants serve as hosts for the entire life cycle of the parasitic cochineal insect, which feeds on the moisture of the cactus leaves.
Cactus leaves are harvested to be brought to a greenhouse where cochineal insects will be cultivated.
FIELD TO FABRIC
Cochineal insects grow exclusively on prickly pear cactus plants. The cactus leaves are typically cultivated and harvested by cochineal farmers and hung in greenhouses, where the life cycle of the cochineal insects takes place. After they hatch from eggs previously scattered with a sieve over the cactus leaf, the cochineals grow into larvae on the cactus and eventually attach to the leaf, where they will remain feeding on the leaf for the rest of their short lives. To harvest the cochineal, farmers knock the insects off of the leaf into a bowl with a spoon or knife, removing them from their food source. The insects’ bodies are so heavily pigmented that they appear to be black, but while they live on the cactus leaves they produce a white powder that completely covers their bodies and the area around them. The white powder is brushed off of the dead insects before they are ground into a dry powder and mixed with liquid to produce various types of vibrant red and pink colorants such as food coloring, paint, and fabric dye.
Rosa Hernandez Lucad, a member of the indigenous women’s cooperative “Mujeres Conservando Raices”, harvests cochineal insects from hanging cactus leaves in her greenhouse. The cooperative seeks to keep traditional practices alive while providing jobs for local indigenous women.
Cochineal eggs are sprinkled onto cactus leaves, where they will hatch and attach to the leaves that they will feed on for the rest of their lives in the greenhouse.
A cochineal insect attached to a cactus leaf. Once attached to a host plant, cochineal insects live out the rest of their lives feeding on the plant without moving from that spot.
Rosa Hernandez Lucad knocks cochineal insects off of a cactus leaf into a pan where the insects will dry out and die without their food source. The dried insects will then be crushed into a highly saturated red powder.
FROM MEXICAN SHAWLS TO JAPANESE SILKS
Cochineal dye has long been used in many traditional art forms in Mexico, such as the paint used to decorate “alebrijes” (colorful intricately painted wooden figures with spiritual meaning), and the red dye used to color the traditional wool shawls and blankets used in the states of Oaxaca and Puebla. Many ancient archaeological sites and pyramids in Mexico still feature red designs painted on stone with cochineal.
Fine art painters have used cochineal-derived paints for many years; “carmine” paint gradually spread from Mexico to countries around the world on merchant ships hundreds of years ago. New technology has recently made it possible to prove that many famous international painters have used cochineal-derived paint in their art. Items and paintings colored with expensive cochineal dye were once regarded in both Mexico and Europe as belonging to the elite, and were seen as a prestigious status symbol. Carmine appeared in Japanese prints in the 17th century, another sign of the global spread of the cochineal.
Women from the “Mujeres Conservando Raices” indigenous women’s cooperative harvest cochineal insects and use them and other natural dyes to color wool that they will use to weave and embroider traditional clothing.
Wool colored with natural dyes such as cochineal, leaves, and flowers.
Wool shawls or “rebozos” woven and dyed by the “Mujeres Conservando Raices” cooperative.
REVIVING A PERENNIAL PIGMENT
Today, cochineal is used to produce makeup like blush and lipstick, as well as to dye fabrics, foods and medicines. It is also used to color cells in pathology laboratories. There has been some debate over the use of cochineal-derived dyes in the makeup and food industries, since the dyes are not vegan and many consumers are not aware of their origin. Although the dye is not as common as it once was due to the time-consuming labor involved in the cochineal’s cultivation, there is still a large production of the dye in Mexico and some other parts of the world. In Coahuila Mexico, for example, large commercial greenhouses are used to produce about 3 tons of cochineal a year.
While in many cases cochineal-derived dyes have gradually been replaced with synthetic dyes, there has been a recent movement in Mexico to bring back the cochineal dyeing tradition in new, modern ways; some artisanal tequila and mezcal brands are starting to color their liquors with cochineal to achieve a pink color, and some clothing designers are emphasizing the use of natural dyes to color their fabrics. Several farmers are starting to bring back the cochineal farming tradition and cultivate cochineal in small-scale greenhouses. The careful preservation of this ancient insect cultivation practice coupled with traditional Mexican art forms now revives a vibrant fusion in artisanal alebrije painting and shawl dyeing in many parts of Mexico. The future looks bright for this ancient Mexican practice that has spread its color across the globe.
Dried cochineal insects are ground up in a molcajete. The powder will be mixed with liquids later on to create red paint.
Elias Ángeles paints an “alebrije” with cochineal at the renowned Jacobo y Maria Ángeles studio in Oaxaca, Mexico. Alebrijes are Mexican folk art sculptures in the shape of mystical animals, often painted with natural dyes like cochineal.
A woman from the “Mujeres Conservando Raices” cooperative finger weaves a wool shawl to be dyed with cochineal later on.
Published by:
Revista Aire (In-flight magazine by AeroMexico airline)
Link: https://grupoexpansion.com/aire-revista-digital-diciembre-/
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