Esther Luján Vigil

Colcha embroidery artist Esther Luján Vigil (photograph and biography by Rebecca Abrams, September 2020)

“The beauty that you have within you is what you’re putting onto the cloth with your hands.”      --- Esther Luján Vigil

Esther Luján Vigil (born 1933, San Pedro, Española, New Mexico) is a colcha embroidery artist and historian of colcha embroidery who has authored and self-published Colcha Embroidery: Book I and Colcha Embroidery: Book II, in May 2006 and May 2010 respectively. Esther was raised in San Pedro, and educated in Española, Los Alamos, and Santa Fe, NM. In 1954 Esther married José Vigil, and together they raised four children in Albuquerque, NM. They have had the pleasure of watching seven grandchildren grow up nearby. Esther's grandson, Gregory (b. 1988), is learning colcha embroidery from her, just as she learned from her mother, Maria Teófila Ortiz Luján (1895—1994), who played a seminal role in both preserving and reviving colcha embroidery in the Española Valley and beyond. Esther's goal is to preserve her culture and heritage through colcha embroidery, just as her mother and her mother's friends did beginning 1928 when they founded the colcha embroidery group, Arte Antiguo. Esther has followed her mother in several important ways, including using commercial yarn and backing, the primary materials available in the 1930s and 40s in the Española Valley and surrounding area. Also like her mother, who was married in 1920, Esther's wedding ceremony was performed by Father Salvador from the church in Santa Cruz, NM. In the 1980s Esther honored the importance of the church by embroidering its altarpiece. Esther prides herself on having 40-60 needle penetrations per square inch and on the back of her pieces being as beautiful as the front. She believes that "The beauty that you have within you is what you're putting onto the cloth with your hands."