Forward By giving a name to a place, an action or indeed an object, we manage to appropriate it for ourselves in a symbolic manner. Through words, Gimena Romero has captured another side of embroidery and shows it in this book in a natural and simple way for those who want to explore the language of embroidery or simply delight in the forms and textures that this art generates. The Embroidery of Mexico is an invitation to the reader to learn the multiple techniques of embroidery that exist in a country as diverse as Mexico, and in tandem, to start becoming familiar with textile expressions, the world view and the characteristics of the cultures bequeathed to us by this invaluable inheritance. So that this heritage is not lost and remains alive it is necessary for more embroidering hands to appropriate it and reinterpret it in accordance with its social and cultural context, as Gimena Romero has done. Part of this appropriation and reinterpretation is present in the chapter dedicated to street embroidery, a celebration of collective embroidery as a ritual and a form of social coexistence. If this chaotic and gigantic metropolis, Mexico City, is crying out for a form of traditional embroidery, this would be street embroidery, which is done in the community, in the heart of the district, manufactured by doñitas1, the young women who live in neighbourhoods that are devoted to caring for family. In the chapter dedicated to Lavín embroidery2, in which the raw material is hair and not thread, the vocation of this book is resumed: to show how the tradition lives on from hand to hand and from mouth to mouth. However, very little of this tradition has been committed to paper, for which reason Gimena Romero has given herself the task of visiting several corners of Mexico to begin an investigation that reveals the secrets of local embroidery and its history.

The book that you have in your hand contains a testimony of various trips that the author has made in order to continue learning to ''speak textile''. This whole learning and knowledge odyssey has been accompanied by Pedro Aragón, friend and accomplice, who has breathed life into this project with beautiful photographs. The Argonauts have explored Tzinzuntzan - the former capital of imperial Purépecha - passing through Oaxaca and the Mixe embroidery of the self-named Ayuujk. The tour ends in the city of Valle de Bravo, the cradle of adventures and sleepless nights where the author of this book came up against the language of needle and thread of the Deer People: Mazahua embroidery, typical of Mexico state3. Without a doubt, I can say that this is one of the most complex and elaborate forms of embroidery that exists in Mexico and one of the most beautiful and difficult in terms of making and craftsmanship. The Embroidery of Mexico is a document that shows artistic creation not just as an expression of the purest emotion that enchants mankind but also as a method of investigation through which it seeks to preserve the techniques, to give a name to those stitches that have existed in silence for years and in so doing to preserve the richness of the living language which is embroidery. For all of those readers who want to ''speak textile'', here is a work produced with much love, developed in the heart of a country overflowing with history, richness and working people who say ''mande'' (a Mexican word used to express a willingness to serve, help or understand) as proof of the nobility that lies in their hearts and not as a sign of submission, a beautiful and beloved country in which we Mexicans want to live in peace and without violence. And if for some strange reason death takes us far away from this land, a thousand and one times may they bring us back here4.

Georgina Sánchez Celaya. Researcher, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art History, University of Bern (Switzerland). 1 Diminutive and affectionate form of doña (lady), a word from Spanish-language slang to refer to a married lady. 2 Lavín embroidery is a very old technique, found in Imperial China, which arrived in Mexico via Spain. 3 In Mexico, there are three states with Mazahua settlements: Chihuahua, Michoacán and Mexico state, the last two being the largest and most important. Each state has a distinct type of embroidery, the embroidery that Gimena Romero learned and to which we refer in this book as that of Mexico state. 4 From a traditional, patriotic mariarchi song, México Lindo y Querido (''Beautiful, Beloved Mexico''), by Chucho Monge, which features the line ''Si muero lejos de ti'' (''If I die far away from you'') - see also pages 8-9.