Emmanuel Vega Solís

April 3, 2026

Translated by Ivannys Porrata Maldonado

In every stitch, a latent identity that weaves tradition and spiritual meaning into a striking and colorful work of art: the molas. In light of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly for the period 2022–2032[1], its imperative to value these indigenous languages and their contributions to the preservation of cultures, recognizing those indigenous practices of ancestral traditions that are still evident on our continent. This article will discuss an artistic expression of great importance to the indigenous Caribbean and Central American Guna culture, also known as Guna Dule. This culture is the primary guardian of the textile tradition known as the mola, and it is the Guna women who are the creators of this centuries-old handcraft and traditional knowledge. Mola means “blouse” or “clothing” in the Dule language, the indigenous language of this ethnic group, which belongs to the Chibcha[2] language family of Central and South America. The Guna Yala, Madungandí, and Wargandi regions occupy the coastal and island (San Blas Islands) strip of northeastern Panama (Fig. 1). In Colombia, the Guna reserves of Maggilagundiwal (Arquía) and Ibgigundiwala (Caimán Nuevo) are located in the northwest of the country.

In the permanent exhibition at the Museum of the Americas: The Indigenous of the Americas, located in Old San Juan, various examples of this textile art can be appreciated. (fig. 2) Furthermore, visitors can learn a bit about the process of making such garments through a short documentary accompanying the exhibition. In the past, the designs that have been rendered on fabric for a century[3] were depicted directly on skin. For this, Guna women used the dye extracted from the jagua and achiote. This dye was applied using wooden rollers carved with traditional motifs. As Arnoldo A. Díaz fittingly notes:

"The origin of the mola was body painting, in the way of tattoos, though not permanent; over time it evolved into plant tissue and, later, onto fabrics, just as we know it today."[4]

With time, the Guna clothing undergoes changes, and both women and men would begin to use commercially produced fabrics. With the arrival of Castilian imperial power and other Europeans to the Caribbean and the Americas, as well as the introduction of new materials—such as metal needles, scissors and fabrics—the Guna people transferred that symbolic knowledge onto fabric through embroidery techniques. Materials such as these became available to the Guna Dule through frequent contact and trade with European merchants, such as the Spanish, English, Scots, and French, beginning in the 17th century.[5] In some cases, the Spanish gave large quantities of fabric to the Guna as gifts to prevent them from attacking during periods of conflict.[6]

Studies suggest that the use of commercial fabric for clothing was due to the Guna Dule’s adaptation to new geographical territories and climatic conditions, such as those of the San Blas Islands.[7] Other studies point to the influence of Western cultures and their way of dressing, as well as new ideas related to modest presentation.[8] The Guna Dule’s settlement on the San Blas Islands brought them into direct contact with maritime trade routes dating back to the colonial era. And as a result of this development and their access to fabrics, the distinctive Guna symbols were woven into panels (pieces of decorative fabric) and eventually incorporated into blouses, establishing the visual style we recognize today as molas.

From childhood to adulthood, the art of the mola is an essential part of the feminine Guna life. The tradition is sustained through the oral transmission of this cultural knowledge from one generation to the next. Gloria Esperanza Martínez, the experienced Guna seamstress featured in the documentary shown in the exhibition hall, affectionately states:

“The first thing I taught my three daughters was how to draw the mola. When they came home from school, they would see me sewing molas. That’s when they started playing with the molas..."

This statement iterates the importance of this tradition in girls’ childhoods. Women have mastered the reverse appliqué technique to create these striking textile pieces. The technique involves carefully cutting out designs traced in pencil on the fabric, folding the cut edges inward, and sewing them to the underlying layer of fabric, revealing the color of that layer and thus creating bold, contrasting designs. To produce these visual effects, the seamstresses use a wide variety of fabrics in different colors.

The Guna Dule culture is best known for its use of commercial cotton to create molas and develop with them a distinctive aesthetic based on designs featuring ancestral symbolism.[9] Both locally and internationally, Guna women have been recognized for creating some of the most recognizable and iconic artistic embroidery in the Caribbean and Central America. Researcher Diana Marks notes that the oldest mola in a museum collection dates back to 1906.[10] The colors of the fabrics used in these early examples were bright and saturated, favoring the creation of molas in red, yellow, orange, navy blue, and black. Today, the mola encompasses an infinite variety of colors, designs, and visual motifs that inspire Guna seamstresses, including representations of vegetation, wildlife, mythical tales, and even characters from contemporary popular culture.

Although they draw inspiration from various sources, molas serve as a prime example of “cultural authenticity” and continue to offer us a glimpse into the world of spiritual meaning inherent in the Guna worldview. In molas, one can observe the recurring theme of repeated motifs, alluding to ‘parallels’[12] (fig. 3)—a central concept to Guna beliefs that establishes that everything present in ‘Mundo este’ (This world) or the plane we inhabit has a double (soul) that exists in the spiritual world. This idea explains why the fabric panels of the molas are made in pairs, reflecting that sense of duality. These panels are then incorporated into the front and back of the blouse.[13]

On the other hand, the use of multiple layers of fabric to create the mola is not only a stylistic convention but is also linked to cosmogonic thought, which holds that the Guna spiritual world comprises multiple levels (layers).[14] Indeed, it is one of these “levels”—in the Dulegaya language, galu—“sacred place”[15]—that the cultural heroine and wise nele (person with spiritual gifts) Nagegiryai enters. According to oral tradition, Nagegiryai enters Galu Dugbis and Galu SabbiMolanalamaggale,[16]  spiritual dimensions where she acquires the cultural knowledge of the ancestral symbolism present in the molas. This narrative confirms the significant identity-defining role of the mola as an art form rooted in storytelling and the encounter with the divine. Nagegiryai transmitted this knowledge to society, and from that moment on, Guna culture has had access to the rich heritage of symbolism that  characterizes it.

The decorative elements of the molas include a series of stitches that are also identified by their own names; in the pieces featured in the exhibition (fig. 3) and (fig. 4), we can see some of them:

The yellow stripe at the top of the mola (fig. 4), whose edges have a pointed appearance, is known as ada-ada; the geometric, labyrinth-like spirals are known as bisu-bisu or “paths of protection.”[17] The oval vertical stripes shown in (fig. 3) are known as das-das.[18]

The following fabric panel (Fig. 5) features a series of designs depicting abstractions of nature, such as bird heads and leaves. In this panel we can also appreciate the wide variety of colorful fabrics used to create the textile work. Interestingly, the design of this artwork reflects a strong desire to fill every available space on the piece’s surface, akin to the Western concept of horror vacui. The meaning of this concept articulates the “horror of emptiness,” implying the use of various elements and ornamental patterns to fill most of the available space on the surface. The application of this concept highlights the seamstress’s experience and skill, as well as her ability to create complex designs.

Finally, the mola and its creation process have been fundamental to the sense of identity that defines this ethnic group in the territories of present-day Panama and Colombia. The impact of this textile art has been so significant that in 1919, Panamanian President Belisario Porras launched a campaign of state repression against this tradition in an effort to erase Guna identity. The objective was clear: forced assimilation.[19] The American anthropologist James Howe, also a scholar of Guna culture, classified this event as an attempt at “ethnocide.”[20] In 1925, Guna leaders summoned a revolution that lasted approximately three to four days. The result of this revolution was the establishment of the Tule Republic. As historian Francisco Herrera aptly notes:

“In February 1925, the Guna of the San Blas region (today Guna Yala) rose up against the Panamanian state and established the short-lived Republic of Tule. The presence of Richard Marsh, an American, among the rebel groups allowed for the mediating intervention of the representative of the U.S. legation in Panama, Glover South, and a peace agreement that helped regulate the state’s role in the region and fostered the sociopolitical development of the Guna in the subsequent decades, granting them a greater degree of political autonomy with the creation of the indigenous reserve, later declared a Comarca (1930, 1938).”[21]

The mola continues to be produced and upheld by Guna women, this fact reinforces its importance as both traditional attire and material culture. Today, the mola is valued as an essential garment of identity that embodies the continuity of the Guna’s ancestral traditions, which remain present in our hemisphere. Women view the creation and sale of molas as a significant economic activity that contributes greatly to their household economies. Although access to Guna territories is guarded by the community itself, this culture maintains contact with the Western world (they refer to Panamanian and Colombian modernity as the West). Museums around the world preserve ancient molas, and some of these institutions maintain relationships with Guna communities in order to continue their educational work regarding this textile art with the support of those communities. In short, the art of the mola is unique and embodies the strength of its people—people who refused to abandon the creation of this garment, even when they were forbidden from expressing any form of indigenous cultural expression. Visit the Museum of the Americas, located in the former Ballajá Barracks, to appreciate this unique art form of the Caribbean, Central America, and all of Abya Yala—the name used by various indigenous peoples to refer to the American continent.

Notes

[1] "El Plan de Acción Global del Decenio Internacional de las Lenguas Indígenas." unesco.org. Last updated: March 15, 2024. https://www.unesco.org/es/decades/indigenous-languages/about/action-plan?hub=67103

[3] Vázquez de Arthur, Andrea. October 23, 2020. "Modelar la identidad: Textiles Mola de Panamá." The Cleveland Museum of Art. Accessed 2025. https://www.clevelandart.org/articles/modelar-la-identidad-textiles-mola-de-panama

[4] Díaz, Arnoldo A. 2018. "NABGWANA BURBA (La espiritualidad de la Madre Tierra o de la Mola)." Universidad de Panamá. Accessed 2026. P. 15.

[5] Marks, Diana. 2016. "Molas: Dress, Identity, Culture." University of New Mexico Press. Accessed 2026. Pp. 56–59.

[7] Ibid. Pp. 56–59.

[8] Ibid. Pp. 56–59.

[9] Cleveland Museum of Art. "Fashioning Identity: Mola Textiles of Panamá." Sunday, November 22, 2020. Accessed 2025. https://www.clevelandart.org/exhibitions/fashioning-identity-mola-textiles-panama

[14] Edilma Prada and Olowaili Green. "Pueblo Gunadule." July 16, 2020. Accessed 2025. https://cuestionpublica.com/pueblo-gunadule/

[15] Juárez Navarro, Kristine E. 2021. "The concept of gender in the Indigenous community of Gunayala." Universidad de Bolonia. Accessed 2025. Pp. 3–25.

[16] "Colombia Artesanal: Molas, formas de tradición y protección." October 24, 2016. Accessed 2026. https://artesaniasdecolombia.com.co/PortalAC/Noticia/colombia-artesanal-molas-formas-de-tradicion-y-proteccion_9105

[17] Edilma Prada and Olowaili Green. "Pueblo Gunadule." July 16, 2020. Accessed 2025. https://cuestionpublica.com/pueblo-gunadule/

[20] Ibid. P. 19.

[21] Herrera, Francisco. 2025. "El impacto de la rebelión de los guna en 1925 y las ciencias sociales en Panamá." América Crítica: Revista de Estudios Culturales Americanos. Pp. 17–27.

Bibliography 

Díaz, Arnoldo A. 2018. "NABGWANA BURBA (La espiritualidad de la Madre Tierra o de la Mola)." Universidad de Panamá. Accessed 2026. P. 15.

Herrera, Francisco. 2025. "El impacto de la rebelión de los guna en 1925 y las ciencias sociales en Panamá." América Crítica: Revista de Estudios Culturales Americanos. Pp. 17–27.

Juárez Navarro, Kristine E. 2021. "The concept of gender in the Indigenous community of Gunayala." Universidad de Bolonia. Accessed 2025. Pp. 3–25.

Marks, Diana. 2014. "The Kuna Mola: Dress, Politics and Cultural Survival." Dress: The Journal of the Costume Society of America. Pp. 17–30.

Marks, Diana. 2016. "Molas: Dress, Identity, Culture." University of New Mexico Press. Accessed 2026. Pp. 56–59.

Digital References

Vázquez de Arthur, Andrea. October 23, 2020. "Modelar la identidad: Textiles Mola de Panamá." The Cleveland Museum of Art. Accessed 2025. https://www.clevelandart.org/articles/modelar-la-identidad-textiles-mola-de-panama

Cleveland Museum of Art. November 22, 2020. "Fashioning Identity: Mola Textiles of Panamá." Accessed 2025. https://www.clevelandart.org/exhibitions/fashioning-identity-mola-textiles-panama

Pache, M. J. 2018. "Contributions to Chibchan historical linguistics." https://hdl.handle.net/1887/67094

Edilma Prada and Olowaili Green. July 16, 2020. "Pueblo Gunadule." Accessed 2025. https://cuestionpublica.com/pueblo-gunadule/

"El Plan de Acción Global del Decenio Internacional de las Lenguas Indígenas." Last updated: March 15, 2024. unesco.org. https://www.unesco.org/es/decades/indigenous-languages/about/action-plan?hub=67103

Museodelamola. (MUMO) March 25, 2025. "Descubre la historia detrás de la mola." Instagram reel. https://www.instagram.com/museodelamola/reel/DHoZ5mtt3uL/?hl=en

The William Benton Museum of Art. "Molas, Textile Designs of the Guna Indians of Panama." University of Connecticut. N.d. Accessed 2025. https://benton.uconn.edu/exhibitions/molas-textile-designs-of-the-kuna-indians-of-panama/