Where does Sombrero vueltiao (striped cane hat) come from?
The sombrero vueltiao comes from Colombia's Caribbean lowlands, from the Zenú people of the Sinú and San Jorge river valleys in Córdoba and Sucre. Its black-and-white braided brim has made it a national symbol of Colombia.
A Zenú hat
The hat comes from the Zenú, an Indigenous people whose ancestral land lies in the valleys of the San Jorge and Sinú rivers, in today's Córdoba and Sucre departments. The town of Tuchín in Córdoba is its heartland. The word vueltiao is a regional form from Colombia's Caribbean north, built on vuelta, 'turn' or 'lap', and it describes how the hat is made: a long braid is turned round and round to build up the crown and the brim.
Cane, mud and a long braid
The hat is braided from caña flecha, 'arrow cane', a wild cane of the region. Its fibre is cut into strips; some stay pale, others are dyed black. Pairs of light and dark strips are braided into geometric patterns, and a good hat takes a braid about 20 metres long. The simplest and most traditional kind, the quinciano, uses 15 pairs of strips. The more pairs in the braid and the more flexible the finished hat, the higher its quality.
Why people say Mexico
To most English speakers a sombrero is the wide, high-crowned charro hat of Mexico, worn by mariachi musicians. In Spanish, though, sombrero can mean any hat; the word comes from sombra, 'shade'. The vueltiao is a different hat with its own history. Colombia's Law 908 of 2004 declared it a Cultural Symbol of the Nation and recognised the culture of the Zenú of Córdoba and Sucre as national heritage.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org › Sombrero vueltiao ↗ · colombia.justia.com ↗ · noticiascaracol.com ↗ · en.wikipedia.org › Sombrero ↗
