It is said that Itzamná, king and high priest of the Itzáes, while searching for medicinal herbs, pricked his hand with the thorn of an agave leaf, and one of his companions, angry, punished the plant by mercilessly beating it with a stone; as he crushed it, fibers appeared, which caused Itzamná's admiration. Appreciating their future usefulness, he said: 'Pain always accompanies the birth of life.'"¹
1 The textile origins of Mesoamerica. Griselle Velasco, 1995.