# Traditional Mexican peasant clothing

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-mexican-peasant-clothing/928672>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 22, 2020, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-mexican-peasant-clothing/928672 "2020-12-22T19:23:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-mexican-peasant-clothing/928672/1 "2020-12-22T19:23:45Z")

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What is the name of the white pajama-like clothing associated with Mexicans around the late 19th- early 20th century?

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**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-mexican-peasant-clothing/928672/2 "2020-12-22T21:14:39Z")

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My Google-Fu is weak. So far, all the websites I have found just call it “shirt and trousers”.

If you search “Mexican peasant pants”, you get a specific style: Loose-fitting, cotton or linen, with a drawstring waist. But I don’t find any name for it other than “pantalones”, which just means “trousers”.

If you search “Mexican peasant shirt”, you get a wide variety of styles, most of them a lot fancier than what the peasants wore in the Clint Eastwood movies. But, other than “camisa” (shirt), the only name I find is “guayabera”, which is a 20th Century style.

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**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2020, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-mexican-peasant-clothing/928672/3 "2020-12-25T06:36:22Z")

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The style, I don’t know; you’d have to link to an image. The fabric is probably just cotton. Why would it be anything else? Maybe linen.

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**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2020, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-mexican-peasant-clothing/928672/4 "2020-12-25T09:46:19Z")

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> [@alovem](#):
>
> you’d have to link to an image

This, from the 1910 revolution:

[![](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jrUlxQ9XnS8/W968jQpuylI/AAAAAAAAh90/_xw-91YsHt8RRsIJ89S3IYVaIr0f75YhgCEwYBhgL/s1600/16.jpg) ](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jrUlxQ9XnS8/W968jQpuylI/AAAAAAAAh90/_xw-91YsHt8RRsIJ89S3IYVaIr0f75YhgCEwYBhgL/s1600/16.jpg)

Loose-fitting white trousers.  
Loose-fitting white shirt, worn with shirt-tail out.  
_huarache_ sandals  
very wide-brimmed hat.

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**Author:** ![Mr.Baggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/87869e/32.png) [@Mr.Baggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Baggins)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-mexican-peasant-clothing/928672/5 "2020-12-26T14:21:59Z")

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We usually call it “traje de manta”, for the fabric. Also, it’s not really usual attire anymore, so it’s not unusual to refer to it as a revolutionary costume (“disfraz de revolucionario”).  
Regards

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**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traditional-mexican-peasant-clothing/928672/6 "2020-12-26T22:35:56Z")

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A related question: would the fabric have been bleached (“white”) or unbleached? And craft or factory?

1910, it could be either way: India still had a lot of unbleached “homespun” fabric.