The History of Mexican Bark Paper

The process of making Mexican barkpaper is traditional, dating from pre-Conquest times. It is the task of the Native men each spring to select dead trees for the manufacture of the paper. They employ several types of fig-tree barks. White paper is made from the inner bark of the Ficus fibers. Light gray comes from the Ficus pacifolia, and dark russet paper is from the Ficus petiolaris. Barkpaper is also made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree. The Native men cut strips of bark five feet long and three to four inches wide, peel them from the trunks and roll them into bundles.

After the collection of the bark, the women take over the paper-making process. They soak the bark in a stream to remove the latex sap and to separate the inner from the outer bark; the latter being discarded. When the moon is new, the inner bark which has been dried and kept rolled after the first washing, is boiled in lime water residue left over from cooking corn. The boiling is followed by several more washings. When soft and pliable, the fiber is cut into strips and placed on flat wooden boards. After being dampened, it is beaten with a hand-sized flattened rectangular stone, (usually lava), until a flat, smooth leaf has been fitted together. The boards with the pounded fiber leaves are left in the sun to dry for one or two days.

In pre-Columbian days, barkpaper was used for drawing, painting and book-making. Paper flags painted with tar or symbolic colors were used in ceremonies. Stone bark beaters, recognized by serrations on one side, have been dated to fifteen-hundred years before the Conquest, indicating the longevity of the paper-making technique. A conservator at the Library of Congress cited an example of a document on barkpaper which was dated approximately 1530 AD. This paper is truly historical, primitive and unique.