Bécal’s jipi hats: why the weaving happens underground, and how to judge the result

By Porter Lang

A hat is a piece of kit. It should pack, hold its shape and cover your head. The jipijapa hats of Bécal, in the Mexican state of Campeche, add a stranger detail: the best of them are woven in caves. Here is what the sources say about why, what to look for in the weave, and how the “Panama hat” name fits in.

The place and the claim

Visit Mexico, the national tourism site, places Bécal in northern Campeche and calls it home to one of the country’s most fascinating artisanal traditions. It says artisans turn jipijapa palm leaves into exceptionally fine hats. Casonas MX, a Campeche hotel company’s blog, says Bécal is in the municipality of Calkiní and describes the hats as the “Panama hat” woven from jipijapa fiber. A travel blog, The Yucatan For 91 Days, says Bécal is about an hour south of Mérida. We show both location descriptions as given.

Visit Mexico mentions a monument in the main square that it calls the Hat Fountain, Fuente de los Sombreros. The travel blog describes a statue of two monumental Panama hats in the main plaza. Same landmark, different wording.

Why a cave?

All three sources link the weaving to humidity.

Visit Mexico: the weaving takes place inside natural caves in family backyards, where “the perfect humidity” keeps the fibers flexible. It says visitors descend into cool, hand-carved limestone caves.
Casonas MX: the damp caves and cellars keep the fiber supple and allow an extremely fine weave.
The Yucatan For 91 Days: the Yucatán is drier and hotter than the Guatemalan highlands, which leaves jipi fibers too brittle to weave, so artisans work in natural and man-made caves, often in their backyards.

Our reading: the practical idea is a climate-controlled workshop with no machinery. None of the sources gives temperature or humidity figures, so we give none.

What the work involves

Visit Mexico says the process goes from shredding the palm leaves to the final shape-pressing. The travel blog says artisans weave strand over strand, and that the best hats take over two weeks to finish. That blog is from February 2014, and the author does not explain what “best” means. Thinner fiber produces a higher-quality hat, it says.

Judging a hat: the roll test and the fiber

Casonas MX offers a test: a fine hat can be rolled up and spring back into shape. It says quality shows in the thinness of the fiber and the density of the weave, and that the finest rolls up without cracking. The same page advises buying handmade pieces and avoiding industrial imitations. Visit Mexico recommends buying directly from the families who make them.

Those are a hotel company’s and a tourism site’s tips, not a standard. We found no trade body or lab that grades Bécal hats.

For comparison, Wikipedia’s Panama hat page describes a grading system used in Ecuador, where grading uses a frame with a 25 millimeter opening. It says tightness of the weave is the main measure of quality, and that the finest Montecristi hats can have up to 3,000 weaves per square inch. It also says a master weaver can take up to eight months on a single hat. It treats the popular lore that a “superfino” can hold water as folklore. That is Ecuador, and the page does not mention Mexico, so we do not claim the same numbers apply to Bécal. Compare that with “over two weeks” from the travel blog: the sources describe different grades, regions and years.

Where the name Panama comes from

Wikipedia says the hat originated in Ecuador, where it is still made. It says the plant is Carludovica palmata, known locally as the toquilla palm or jipijapa palm, and that it is palm-like rather than a true palm. Straw hats from Ecuador were first shipped to the Isthmus of Panama before going elsewhere, so they took the name of their point of sale. The page adds that travelers during the California Gold Rush reportedly said they bought the hats in Panama, and that a photograph of Roosevelt wearing one at the canal site in 1906 reinforced the name. It also says Ecuador’s toquilla straw weaving was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage lists on 5 December 2012.

The sources disagree, loosely, on where the palm comes from. Wikipedia places it in Ecuador’s tradition. The travel blog says jipi is a palm tree from Guatemala. Neither explains how fiber for Bécal is sourced, so we cannot say.

Care

Casonas MX says a fine jipijapa hat prefers humidity to the sun on a car dashboard. That is the only care advice we found, so we give nothing more.

Dates in order

1526: Spanish conquistadors meet coastal Ecuadorians wearing a toque-like hat, according to Wikipedia.
1906: Roosevelt photographed in a Panama hat at the canal site, according to Wikipedia.
5 December 2012: Ecuadorian toquilla weaving added to UNESCO’s intangible heritage lists, according to Wikipedia.
2014: The Yucatan For 91 Days publishes its visit to Bécal.

We found no source giving a date for when Bécal’s weaving began.

What kind of sources these are

Visit Mexico (the national tourism site); Casonas MX (a hotel company’s blog, reviewed by its own editors in July 2026, promotional); The Yucatan For 91 Days (a travel blog from 2014); Wikipedia (open encyclopedia).

What we left out

We left out prices, tour offers, the names of makers and weavers, the other Campeche crafts on the hotel’s list, and the fair-trade claim on the tourism site, which we could not test.

Quick answers

Where are jipi hats made in Mexico? In Bécal, Campeche, according to Visit Mexico. Casonas MX places it in the municipality of Calkiní.
Why are Bécal hats woven in caves? Visit Mexico, Casonas MX and a travel blog all say cave humidity keeps the palm fibers flexible enough for a fine weave.
How can you tell a fine jipijapa hat? Casonas MX says look for thin fiber and a dense weave, and that the finest rolls up and springs back into shape.

Roam first. Shop later.

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