The case study of the island of Taquile in the Peruvian part of Lake Titicaca will be used to explore how textiles functions as intermediaries for social interactions and change and how they respond to demands from ethnic tourism. By using theories of material culture, specifically the analytical approach of "the biography", I aim to shed light on the process by which some textiles in Taquile have passed from being the person’s “second skin” to a commodity responding to ethnic tourism. However, such a process, rather than being contradictory, expresses the capacity of Taquilean culture to adapt the local values to a monetary economy. Taquilean culture is also an agent in these encounters with tourism, impeding the complete commoditization of the textiles.