Thanks to the IOLI & El Museo del Mundillo!

“El Museo del Mundillo: Sustaining Tradition.” 11 Feb. 2024

This past February, I presented my talk, El Museo del Mundillo: Sustaining Tradition, to the International Organization of Lace Inc.

For over twenty years in Moca, the Museo is an important focal point, interconnecting tejedoras, artisans, materials and cultural memory, under the directorship of Don Mokay Hernandez Vale. 

Don Benito ‘Mokay’ Hernandez Vale founded the museum with the support of a group of tejedoras (master lacemakers), some no longer with us. Today, El Museo del Mundillo sits near the town’s plaza in the former 1935 health building on Calle Barbosa in the heart of Barrio Pueblo in Moca.

The museum serves the community by connecting artisans, hosting trainings, coordinating festivals and events. Featured are many examples of local lacemaking, and the institution preserves aspects of mundillo’s history all too often lost when an artisan passes.

Also on display are works that tie mundillo to deeper histories of the island. This is seen in the framed work of Carmen Quinones Marcial & Frances Mendez Colon’s (QEPD) Tejidos de Maguey. Featured is lace made from the fibers of the maguey plant, processed and transformed into a decorative arrangement of fan and flowers. 

This talk covered an overview of the museum, the community’s century’s long involvement with mundillo and the importance of supporting this institution today. 

Here’s a recent tour of the Museo del Mundillo by the Museo de las Americas PR’s #DaleClickaLaCultura initiative:

I’m delighted to learn of one artist’s amazing use of mundillo in their work- artist Glorimar Garcia reached out after my talk and shared her site! – Be sure to check out her installations & projects.

The talk is archived for IOLI members. IOLI VP Prabha Ramakrishand sent a lovely letter of acknowledgement and a year subscription to the IOLI digital journal. So appreciate the gift!