What is a Ruana?

You've seen ourruanas - thick, warm, and worn around your shoulders - and they probably lookfamiliar. While the word may sound foreign, the ruana (pronounced roo-AH-nah)is a style that's become common around the world. It may look like a shawl tothose of us outside South America, but this unassuming wool throw is much moreunique than that. Aside from its both fashionable and practical design, theruana's rich and colorful history is a journey that spans centuries; throughconquest and rebellion, servitude and freedom, and from one corner of the globeto the rest of the world.

While theruana's design is not always uniform, it's always recognizable. Sometimescalled "the four-cornered coat" in its native lands, it's essentiallya split poncho. Much the same as its cousin, it's woven as a large square on aloom, but instead of a hole for the wearer's head, it has a long slit from hemto center. Occasionally, the ruana is not split and looks very much like aponcho, but is marked by its heavier weight and larger size, as ponchos aredesigned to be short and light. Its material varies somewhat - in most of theAndes, the ruana is made with virgin sheep's wool (wool unused and unprocessedbefore being woven), but Peru, with the largest alpaca population in the world,uses softer alpaca wool. 

While the trueorigin of the ruana is unclear, it's largely believed that it was created inthe Colombian Andes by the indigenous Muisca. What is universally agreed upon,however, is that the ruana is old, worn as early as the 15th century, decadesor more before the Spanish set foot in the region. It was designed to be thickand heavy, warmer than a poncho to withstand the high-altitude chill of themountains. Its size covers the body well, but it moves freely, making itperfect for working farmers. It was also made to be versatile, doubling as ablanket at night, a picnic spread on sunny days, or to be folded up as acushion to sit on. Its all-purpose nature extended its use beyond farmers, andbecame a staple of every man, woman, and child. While the men's ruanas werecropped to their knees, women's were more likely to have fallen to theirankles, to be worn indoors while weaving, washing, and cooking. The ruanabecame so ingrained in Muisca culture that it was found everywhere - color anddesign denoted class and status, and they were traded as goods, ritually giftedbetween families at weddings, and most people were even buried in their ruanasto meet the next life.

Originally,ruanas had been made of heavy cotton grown by the Muisca, but after the arrivalof the Spanish and their introduction of sheep in the early 1500s, the materialshifted to the warmer and more practical sheep's wool, which is still usedtoday. Not long after that, however, the Spanish conquered the region and itspeople, reducing the hardy Muisca to servants and slaves. The ruana, once abeloved and personal treasure, fell from grace to become a poor man's garment,worn only by those conquered, and it eventually became little more than asymbol of the lowest class. For centuries, the ruana would be regarded withdistaste and contempt, used to mark its wearer with shame. 

This attitudecontinued until the 1820s, when Simon Bolivar, a member of the Venezuelancreole elite and now a hero of South American history, led his army across theAndes to liberate modern-day Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia from theSpanish. He shed the fine clothing of the prosperous Caracas upper class,donning a humble ruana and sombrero and riding a horse on a series ofsuccessful military campaigns. With these victories the ruana quickly rose tobecome a symbol of independence, freedom, and pride across the region.

While it'sdifficult to determine exactly what caused the ruana's very recent surge inglobal popularity, one very likely possibility is that it started with OscarTeatino, the Mayor of Nobsa, Boyacá in Colombia back in 2009. Nobsa,historically the home of acclaimed ruana artisans and the largest ruanaexporter in Colombia, was beginning to suffer a drop in the industry as hugefactories moved in and shifted the economy toward manufacturing. Mayor Teatinowanted to shine a spotlight on the ruana and his citizens, remind the world ofthe humble ruana, and ensure the preservation of its craft. And so, in a strokeof genius, he created International Ruana Day. To be celebrated on the thirdSunday each May, a festival honoring the ruana and it's history would be heldin the city's center, featuring music, fashion, and artisanship. Intending tomake the first Ruana Day a spectacular one, Mayor Teatino organized thecreation of the world's largest ruana, which was worn by the city's cathedraland recognized by the Guinness World Records. Since then, the Ruana Dayfestival has gained global attention and helped thrust the ruana back into theinternational market.