The guayabera () is a men's shirt distinguished by two vertical rows of closely sewn pleats that run the length of the front and back of the shirt. Typically made of lightweight linen or cotton, worn untucked, and appropriate for hot or humid weather, guayaberas are popular in the Caribbean (especially Cuba), Central America, and Southeast Asia.
Video Guayabera
Design
The design of a typical guayabera is distinguished by several details:
- Either two or four patch pockets and two vertical rows of alforzas (fine, tiny pleats, usually ten, sewed closely together) run along the front and back of the shirt. The pockets are detailed with alforzas that are identical to, and aligned with, the alforzas on the body of the shirt.
- The top of each pocket is usually adorned with a matching shirt button, as are the bottoms of the alforza pleats. Vertical rows of adjusting buttons are often seen, one on each side, at the bottom hem. While most versions of the design have no placket covering the buttons, a few newer designs do.
- The bottom of many shirts has slits on either side, and these include adjusting buttons. The bottom has a straight hem, and is not tucked into the trousers.
Though traditionally worn in white and pastels, guayaberas are now available in many solid colors. Black guayaberas, embroidered with colorful flowers and festooned with French cuffs, have for many decades been extremely popular in Mexico and are considered formalwear in some situations.
Mexican guayaberas often use complicated embroidery in place of or as a supplement to the traditional alforzas. This style originated in Mérida, Mexico.
Maps Guayabera
History
The exact origin of the garment is unknown. Various claims for the style have been made, including that:
- Mexicans originated it in either the state of Veracruz or the Yucatán Peninsula. (In Mexico, the same basic style is also known as the "camisa de Yucatán" (Yucatán shirt) or "wedding shirt".)
- The Philippine barong tagalog, which has documented origins in the Philippines prior to the arrival of the Spanish, made its way to Cuba through Mexico via the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade. However, some scholars doubt that the barong, as worn before the Spanish, resembles the modern guayabera, making this direction of influence less likely.
- It originated in Cuba, moving from there to Mexico. Cuban literature refers to the shirt as early as 1893, and documentary evidence mentions the shirt in Cuba as early as 1896. The Cuban origin story tells of a poor countryside seamstress sewing large patch-pockets onto her husband's shirts for carrying guava (guayabas) from the field. In other versions of the story, guayabera is said to have originated from the word yayabero, the nickname for those who lived near the Yayabo River in Cuba.
Wear and use
The guayabera is often worn in formal contexts, such as offices and weddings. In Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, guayaberas are part of the traditional wear for men and may be considered formalwear. In 2010, Cuba declared the guayabera to be its "official formal dress garment".
Political symbolism
Guayaberas have been worn extensively by a number of Latin American political leaders, including César Chávez, Carlos Prío Socarrás, and Fidel Castro. This is often interpreted as a sign of the wearer's affiliation with populist political positions. Michael Manley, populist Jamaican prime minister, specifically advocated for the guayabera as an anti-colonialist mode of dress, and conversely the shirt was later banned in Parliament by the conservative Jamaica Labor Party. Similarly, Mexican populist Luis Echeverría advocated for its use in Mexico in part to symbolize rejection of European and American-style business suits.
U.S. presidents, including Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Barack Obama, have worn the shirts as a sign of solidarity when visiting the Cuban community in Miami and when attending Latin American summits. Visiting politicians are sometimes given the shirts by Cuban American or Latin American political leaders.
Similar shirts and alternative names
A variety of similar, lightweight dress shirts exist in other tropical countries. These include:
- In the Dominican Republic: a similar or identical shirt is called a "chacabana".
- In Guyana: a similar or identical shirt is called a "shirt-jac".
- In Jamaica: the guayabera is called a "bush jacket".
- In the Philippines: the barong tagalog shirt has some features which are similar to the guayabera: it is long-sleeved, light, traditionally white, and worn without being tucked in. However, the most traditional styles are decorated with "U" shaped embroidery (called the pechera), rather than the guayabera's straight pleats, and lack pockets. It is also traditionally made of hand-woven, fine, translucent piña or jusi fiber, rather than linen.
References
External links
Source of article : Wikipedia
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