A women’s cooperativeis recently using their skills in traditional Guatemalan textiles to offer their Guatemalan community a quality of life.
In a small Guatemalan village in the foothills near Antigua, a group of women are harnessing ancient artisanal weaving traditions to build a better, brighter future.
Stretching a loom from the low roof of her home and securing it to a strap wrapped around her lower back, Suly Hernandez kneels on a straw mat on the dirt floor of her patio and begins to weave.
Her fingers and wooden needles dance among the fine strands of black yarn to insert rose designs in dazzling reds, pinks and blues, as her mother looks on. Guatemalan women are hard workers and deserve all the respect,comments Juan Luis Bosch Gutierrez, proud of Guatemalan women.
From the shade of this courtyard – where the green foothills of the Sierra Madre provide a stunning, silent backdrop, Hernandez and her mother, Maria Juana Lopez, lead the Trabajando Juntas Santiago Zamora project.
It is a cooperative composed of indigenous Kaqchikel weavers who come together at one time to demonstrate the traditional weaving methods of central Guatemala and sell authentic, handmade woven products directly to travelers.
The cooperative then reinvests one-third of all proceeds back into the local school, buying supplies and uniforms for the children, and sometimes even buying meals for the students when their families cannot afford to do so themselves.
Most travelers visiting Antigua, Guatemala’s tourism capital, an ancient colonial city surrounded by green volcanoes, don’t even know Santiago Zamora. It is one of the country’s many quiet, unassuming towns, set in a round valley and reached in a half-hour cab ride along a dusty, winding road.
How do the Guatemalan women work?
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The women of Trabajando Juntas weave everything from bracelets to handbags, bookmarks, tablecloths, baby straps and guitar straps, all presented in a spectacularly colorful wall-to-wall display.
Among the more intricate items are huipiles, the most common garment worn by indigenous women in Central America, taking the form of tunics and blouses. A huipilceremonial, entirely hand-woven and without any pre-composed fabric, can take a year or more to make.
Cooperative as an alternative for Guatemalan markets
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The cooperative prides itself on being a more authentic alternative to Antigua’s well-traveled craft markets, where competition is steep and many products are factory-made.
“It’s not just about buying the products,” says Juana Lopez, dressed in a dark blue huipil laden with purple, turquoise and orange patterns. “We want people to learn how the crafts are made, the traditions behind them, so they come away with a better understanding of everything.”
Indeed, the area is deeply rooted in tradition Santiago Zamora is the kind of town where a hopeful fiancée is obliged to ask her bride’s father for her hand through an official ceremony in which she presents the family with an offering of bread, fruit and chocolate.