A Mayan woman, dressed in her traditional, hand-woven traje, looks on from afar as we demonstrate how to use our rocket stove at a SolCom sales campaign in Panajachel.
Posted by nikkibrand | Filed under Photography
19 Friday Jul 2013
A Mayan woman, dressed in her traditional, hand-woven traje, looks on from afar as we demonstrate how to use our rocket stove at a SolCom sales campaign in Panajachel.
Posted by nikkibrand | Filed under Photography
16 Wednesday Nov 2011
Tags
Guatemala, indigenous communities, indigenous dress, Lago de Atitlán, Lake Atitlan, traje, youth
Posted by nikkibrand | Filed under Photography
19 Wednesday Oct 2011
Posted Blog
inTags
Fair trade, Guatemala, indigenous communities, Mayan women, natural dyes, Oxlajuj B'atz', Thirteen Threads, traje, weaving
Curious about the actual mechanics of backstrap weaving? Or wondering why backstrap weaving is such an integral part of Mayan culture? Check out this photo essay tracing the significance of backstrap weaving within the history and tradition of indigenous Guatemala. Be a conscious consumer, respect local cultures and traditions, and support fair trade!
For more information about Fair Trade’s growing prominence in the international economy, see “The Mainstreaming of Fair Trade.”
17 Monday Oct 2011
Have you ever thought about the consequences of what you donate to charity? The common presumption is that all charity is “good” charity, and that there will always be someone who can use items that you would otherwise discard, regardless of their condition or original purpose.
But as Charles Kenny explains in his article in Foreign Policy magazine:
Here’s the trouble with dumping stuff we don’t want on people in need: What they need is rarely the stuff we don’t want. And even when they do need that kind of stuff, there are much better ways for them to get it than for a Western NGO to gather donations at a suburban warehouse, ship everything off to Africa or South America, and then try to distribute it to remote areas.
25 Sunday Sep 2011
Posted Blog
inIn light of the recent presidential election, and with the second round coming up in November, political candidates have recently been photographed wearing elements of traje – the traditional dress of the Maya – and clothing embroidered with traditional Mayan motifs. According to the Latinamerican Press:
The message that these candidates are trying to send is ‘look, I’m one of you,’ something that indigenous organizations have described as “racist” and “offensive”, especially when the politicians attired in Mayan garments, such as Pérez Molina, of the right-wing Patriotic Party, or PP, and an Army retired general, have alleged ties to human rights violations against the indigenous population during Guatemala’s 36-year-long civil war.
In addition to their intrinsic beauty, the brightly-colored blouses and skirts that make the Maya’s traje have a distinct cultural and traditional purpose. Each piece of traje is hand-woven and embroidered in a painstaking process that takes weeks or months, and the designs and patterns are unique to each community and municipality. Wearing traje thus allows Mayan women to represent the unique cultural identity and history of their community, as well as to demonstrate solidarity with Mayan culture as a whole.