“Every year in Mission times the priests gave cloth to the Indian women to make dresses. The yearly ration was some cloth for a silk shawl, eight feet long and four feet wide of various colors and fringed, a piece of cloth for sheets, and a piece of cloth, maybe two, three, or four yards long, also of various colors. The nuns [unmarried women] were given better cloth, for they belonged to the priests. Each man received three yards of yellow muslin for a G-string, and six yards for a sheet for wrapping about himself. A man also received a serape, with a hole to put his head through. Children were given, say, two yards of yellow muslin for G-strings, according to the needs of the child. The priests gave the vaqueros a saddle, a vest, pants, jacket, and several yards of yellow muslin for sheets and for handkerchiefs. [The clothing consisted of coarse wool or sack-cloth. The men wore a short tunic, called a coton’, G-string (about 1.5 yards long by 0.5 yards wide) and a blanket. The women also received a blanket, a white cotton blouse, and a woolen skirt, the latter in any of several colors. Alcaldes received the same type of clothing that the Spanish or Mexican people wore. This included leggings, hat, boots, and a manga blanket.] The vaqueros were the only ones who wore short pants; the Indian men …wore only a G-string and a blanket. It was only in 1847 that Indian men in Ventura began to wear pants, and then they wore the G-string underneath.”

An alcade was an Indian offical of the mission, elected by the neophytes each year. His duties consisted of acting as justice of the peace as well as bring before the priest anyone accused of a crime. He also carried out punishment and was exempt from corporal punishment.

In most cases Indians possessed only one set of clothing. Men, for example, washed themselves with a sweat, washed their G-string, then returned to the temescal (sweathouse) while their G-string dried.

The pattern of clothing reflects the strict class structure in colonial Spain and Mexico. Indian men wore G-strings, while the Spanish and later Mexicans wore pants. Vaqueros, while Indians, were of higher status, having horses, as were the Alcaldes. Indians went barefoot, while mestizos wore sandals and Spaniards and Mexicans wore shoes or boots (vaqueros were an exception). If Indians were caught making sandals for themselves, they were punished.

Mike Kuhn

12-23-04