Entry #43 Mexico 2025 and The Art of Yucatan: Senora Chan's Hammocks

During my trip with my Michigan State University students to the Yucatán in January of 2025, we visited with the Señora Chan in the village of Ek Balam. She makes gorgeous cotton hammocks. Some people in the Yucatán sleep in them. In older homes and hotels, hammock hooks are built into the walls of bedrooms. Today there are lots of hammocks in the gardens of hotels and private gardens, but, generally, hooks are not built into walls of newer hotel rooms and houses.

I have owned several full - sized handmade hammocks from Mexico, but I don’t have a place to hang them where I live now. Nevertheless, small ones serve purposes other than as a “bed.” In the past, I heard vendors call out selling tiny “hamacas para Barbie.” I don’t have Barbies to put in them, but I use the mini-hammocks in my pantry to store onions and potatoes.

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At the left is a photoe of our visit with Señora Chan.  Above are two small hammocks I brought home to Michigan.