The Panama hat that is woven in Ecuador
An A1 Spanish reading: a family in Montecristi weaves toquilla straw hats, from the green stalks to the finished brim.
Un sombrero de Ecuador con nombre de Panamá
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Delia, from Montecristi in Manabí, Ecuador, describes how her family weaves toquilla straw hats. Farmers cut the green stalks, separate the fibre, boil it and dry it in the shade. Weaving starts at the crown and moves out to the brim; her grandmother works before dawn, when the air is cool. A plain hat takes a day, a very fine one up to eight months. The verbs run through the singular and plural persons: yo, tú, él, ella, nosotros, ellos.
El material es una paja clara y suave. Sale de una planta de la costa que llamamos paja toquilla. Los agricultores cortan los tallos verdes y separan la fibra.
Después hierven la paja en agua caliente. Así la fibra pierde el color verde y queda clara. Al final secan la paja a la sombra.
Nosotros empezamos el sombrero por la copa, el centro de la pieza. Después tejemos el ala. El trabajo avanza desde el centro hacia afuera, vuelta tras vuelta.
Mi abuela teje de madrugada. A las cinco de la mañana el aire está fresco y el trabajo sale mejor. Mi primo Aníbal teje por la noche, con una lámpara pequeña.
Un sombrero sencillo sale en un día. Un sombrero muy fino necesita meses: a veces ocho meses para una sola pieza.
Tú compras un sombrero en una tienda y ves un objeto ligero y claro. Cuando miras la copa de cerca, cuentas las vueltas de paja. Ahí está el trabajo de mi familia.
En muchos países este sombrero se llama panamá. El nombre confunde a muchos viajeros: la pieza es ecuatoriana. La Unesco incluye nuestro tejido tradicional en su lista de patrimonio cultural inmaterial.
¿Y tú? ¿Llevas sombrero cuando hace mucho sol? ¿Cómo llaman a este sombrero en tu país? ¿Qué objeto hecho a mano tienes en casa?
About this article
What you'll learn
Present tense across several persons: tejo, teje, tejemos, cortan, hierven; the -an versus -en endings; the nosotros form without a stem change (empezamos); gente with a singular verb. Craft vocabulary: paja, tallo, copa, ala, hervir.
Delia, from Montecristi in Manabí, Ecuador, describes how her family weaves toquilla straw hats. Farmers cut the green stalks, separate the fibre, boil it and dry it in the shade. Weaving starts at the crown and moves out to the brim; her grandmother works before dawn, when the air is cool. A plain hat takes a day, a very fine one up to eight months. The verbs run through the singular and plural persons: yo, tú, él, ella, nosotros, ellos.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
de madrugada
newin the small hours, before dawn
La madrugada is the stretch between midnight and sunrise. The most common phrase is de madrugada, and en la madrugada is also correct.
Learn the whole set: por la mañana, por la tarde, por la noche and, for the hours before dawn, de madrugada.
a la sombra
newin the shade
A fixed phrase built with a, not en: a la sombra. Its opposite is al sol.
Everyday use: comer a la sombra, dejar el carro a la sombra.
hecho a mano
newhandmade
Hecho agrees with the noun: un sombrero hecho a mano, una pieza hecha a mano.
You will see it on labels and workshop signs across Spain and Latin America.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
tejer (teje)
teje
to weave, to knit
Tejer covers weaving and knitting alike: straw, wool or cloth. It is a plain -er verb with no stem change.
It gives tejido, the woven work named in the text, and tejedora, a woman who weaves.
la paja
la paja
straw
Paja is dry plant fibre used for hats, baskets or roofing. In paja toquilla it names the material itself.
Sombrero de paja is a straw hat: Spanish links material to object with de, not with an adjective.
el tallo
los tallos
stem, stalk
El tallo is the stem of a plant, the part that holds up leaf and flower. These stems are cut to get the fibre.
Handy in the kitchen too: el tallo del brócoli, el tallo de la flor.
hervir (hierven)
hierven
to boil
Hervir means to boil, both transitive and intransitive. Hierven looks unlike the infinitive because the stressed e turns into ie: hiervo, hierves, hierve, hierven.
A kitchen essential: hervir el agua, hervir las papas.
la copa
la copa
crown of a hat; wine glass; treetop
On a hat, la copa is the part that covers the head. The same word names a stemmed glass and the top of a tree.
One noun, three everyday senses: la copa del sombrero, una copa de vino, la copa del árbol.
el ala
el ala
brim of a hat; wing
Ala is a feminine noun, but in the singular it takes el because it starts with a stressed a sound: el ala. The plural returns to las alas and adjectives stay feminine: el ala ancha.
El agua fría and el águila behave the same way. On a hat, el ala is the brim around the crown.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
tejo, teje, tejemos, tejen
yo tejo desde los once años
I weave, she weaves, we weave
Present tense of -er verbs: tejo, tejes, teje, tejemos, tejéis, tejen. The sentence in the text puts teje (she) next to tejo (I).
In Ecuador, and across Spanish America, ustedes tejen replaces tejéis.
empezamos
Nosotros empezamos el sombrero por la copa
we begin
Empezar changes e to ie in the stressed forms: empiezo, empiezas, empieza, empiezan. In the nosotros form the stress moves to the ending, so the change disappears: empezamos.
Hervir and perder do the same: hiervo but hervimos, pierdo but perdemos. The nosotros form is the calm one.
compras, ves, miras
Tú compras un sombrero en una tienda
you buy, you see, you look
Second person singular endings: -as for -ar verbs (compras, miras) and -es for -er and -ir verbs (ves). The pronoun tú is normally left out; here it is added on purpose to turn to the reader.
These are the forms you need to speak to one person directly.
gente takes a singular verb
mucha gente vive del tejido de sombreros
many people live from...
Gente is a feminine singular noun even though it refers to many people, so the verb stays singular: la gente vive, mucha gente teje.
English says "people live", which pulls learners into the mistake mucha gente viven.
-an versus -en in the ellos form
cortan los tallos verdes y separan la fibra
they cut, they boil
For ellos, -ar verbs take -an (cortan, separan, secan) while -er and -ir verbs take -en (hierven, tejen). One letter separates the two groups.
The text puts both patterns side by side: los agricultores cortan, después hierven la paja.
me llamo, se llama
este sombrero se llama panamá
my name is, it is called
Llamarse works the same for people and for things: me llamo Delia, este sombrero se llama panamá. Both the little pronoun and the ending change with the person.
It is the verb you used to introduce yourself; here it names an object instead.
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