Q'ero is an isolated indigenous community on the eastern slope of the Andes. In this harsh environment, a rich and complex textile tradition has endured from pre-Hispanic times. Woven from the hair of local alpacas, the colorful shawls, ponchos, bags, and other textiles produced are worn daily and form part of the rituals and ceremonies of Q'ero. Hidden Threads of Peru combines ethnography, anecdote, and textile art to offer fascinating new insights into a culture that can trace its traditions back to the Inca empire. The Q'ero people themselves discuss the significance of the fabrics they make and the nature of their Andean life, while photographs taken from the early twentieth century to the present day illustrate their daily life and rituals, as well as -- in sumptuous full color -- the textiles themselves, revealing the evolution and range of patterns over a one-hundred-year period.

Ann Pollard Rowe is Curator, Western Hemisphere Collections, at The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C. She is a specialist in the indigenous peoples of Latin America, both archaeological and contemporary. Her previous books include Warp-Patterned Weaves of the Andes (1977) and Costumes and Featherwork of the Lords of Chimor (1984), and she is co-author and editor of Costume and Identity in Highland Ecuador (1998) John Cohen is a filmmaker, photographer, and musician, taking a particular interest in ethnographic films, textiles, and folk music. He has made eight trips to Q'ero over a period of forty years. He was also Professor of Visual Arts at the State University of New York from 1972 to 1997