Festival de Gastronomia y Artesania

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field campaign, Guatemala, Santiago Atitlán, weaving

Last month, we held a mini-campaign at a gastronomy and artistry festival across the lake in Santiago Atitlan – a huge success not just for glasses sales but also for making contacts in a new community. After our campaign, I spent some time checking out the different food and wares being sold, including these beautiful hand-embroidered telas (pieces of fabric).

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Fair Prices?

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artisan, ethical fashion, Fair trade, Guatemala, indigenous communities, sustainable development, Thirteen Threads, weaving

My first time (really!) trying traditional backstrap weaving – way harder than it looks!

This week with my students, I’ve been working on a fair price calculation project – a project that’s been both challenging and frustrating, but one that I’ve really enjoyed working with. The project is focused on Juana’s weaving cooperative, Sanik – “worker ants,” in their native language of Kachiquel. Sanik sells many of their products abroad through my friend Alyssa’s tipico export website, Hiptipico, as well as wholesale to boutiques in the states, with help from my two predecessors, Alli and Michelle, but my concern was that despite these markets (which are – quite importantly – are currently providing near consistent work for all of the artisans in the cooperative), the artisans are still not receiving a fair price for their products, and my hope was that we could address this by helping Juana design a simple, adaptable system for calculating prices for Sanik’s products that are fair and just but will not prohibit market access.

Tipico Backpacks

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artisan, Chichicastenango, ethical fashion, Guatemala, Hiptipico, tipico, weaving

Rows of handmade leather and fabric backpacks line the stands at the Chichicastenango market, the largest open-air market in Central America. On market days – Thursdays and Sundays – indigenous vendors from all over swarm the streets with handicrafts, pottery, masks, textiles, and more. These backpacks (and much more) are on sale at my friend’s ethical fashion website, Hiptipico!

Colors and Compras

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Chichicastenango, ethical fashion, Guatemala, indigenous communities, Lago de Atitlán, Lake Atitlan, Mayan women, San Antonio, weaving

We lit up one of our coolest products, the “rocket” stove, and did spontaneous demonstrations and mini-charlas in the streets to promote it. The rocket stove is perfect for cooking beans or nixtamal (the first step of making tortillas).

This weekend, as always, was jam-packed. Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early for a campaign in Pana – the first campaign I personally coordinated! It was not a particularly successful campaign sales-wise, but we were able to generate a lot of awareness about SolCom and about the existence of the SolCom Centro in Solola, which is always good.

My purchases from the weekend – handmade ceramic mugs from San Antonio and a straw hat from ChiChi

The rest of the afternoon was one of those perfect Guatemalan afternoons where things just work out as they should. After a delayed fourth of july celebratory barbecue lunch, Bo and I hopped on a pick-up around the lake, heading to San Antonio. I’d never been before but I’m now convinced that the tiny town boasts some of the most beautiful views of the lake I’ve seen yet. San Antonio is known for their handcrafted and handpainted ceramics, so I bought a pair of gorgeous blue mugs to start outfitting my still relatively bare apartment. After returning from San Antonio, we stopped off at the famous Crossroads coffee and then went to a belated fourth of july barbecue at a friend’s house.

Field Week in San Juan

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artisan, Guatemala, indigenous communities, Lago de Atitlán, Lake Atitlan, LEMA, San Juan, Social Entrepreneur Corps, weaving

The lake view from our hotel in San Juan, where I’m living this week

On Monday, Michelle, Bo, and I loaded up a micro-bus with our group of ten students and traveled down to the lake for our first two field weeks. This week, we’re in San Juan, working on projects with the weaving cooperative Lema’ – helping them to formulate plans for opening up a cafe and to create a marketing plan for the cooperative’s homestay program, their weaving products, and ultimately the cafe as well. We’re also working on some projects for SolCom itself, specifically, beginning a marketing campaign to attract new entrepreneurs for the region, as there are large areas that we currently are not able to reach. Finally, tomorrow, the students will be conducting two additional SolCom campaigns as we did last week, helping our regional entrepreneurs sell reading glasses, filters, solar products, and more in San Juan itself and in San Pablo, a neighboring town.

Poco a Poco

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Antigua, Community Enterprise Solutions, Guatemala, Lago de Atitlán, Lake Atitlan, LEMA, Panajachel, San Juan, weaving

Lots to report from the last few days! On my first night in Antigua, we had a team dinner with all of the Field Consultants, in honor of those who are leaving and as a sort of celebratory welcome for me. We ate at Fusion, one of the best restaurants in Antigua, enjoyed homemade pasta, and shared a few bottles of wine…not the worst first meal in Guatemala! As part of the celebration, two of the Field Consultants put together a bunch of superlative awards and I was given awards for being the most likely to succeed AND “most improved” since my arrival in Guatemala…clearly a joke, but in the best way possible. It feels great to be part of such a supportive team, and having the chance to get to meet everyone all together before heading off to my region was a great transition period, if only for a few hours.

Catching the lancha in Panajachel to San Juan!

Michelle and I woke up early yesterday morning to catch a shuttle to Pana, which is where I am now! I checked into another hotel where I’ll be staying for the remainder of this week, before heading out for fieldwork with the interns at the end of this week. I’ll probably actually be sticking in this hotel for the rest of the month since I will barely be in Pana at all, and looking for a more permanent place to live in July. So looks like I’m living out of my suitcases for now! Michelle also talked me through some of the specifics of the projects we will be working on with the SECorps intern during our field weeks this summer, and they’re all really exciting and right up my alley!

Interconnectedness

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artisan, Community Enterprise Solutions, Guatemala, indigenous communities, Panajachel, weaving, youth

A few days ago, a young Mayan girl tried to sell me a bracelet on Skype. I was in the middle of a Skype training with Michelle, the current CE Solutions Field Consultant in Solola, when she wandered into the cafe where Michelle was sitting and took it upon herself to join in on our Skype conversation. I told her that the bracelet was very beautiful, but that I live very far away…and she said (very seriously) that my friend should just buy it for me and send it to me later.

Naturally Colorful

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Guatemala, indigenous communities, Lake Atitlan, Mayan women, natural dyes, weaving

These “monederos” (coin-purses) were hand-stitched from beautiful textiles that were woven and dyed naturally by a women’s weaving cooperative in the beautiful lakeside village of San Juan.

Weaving Cooperative Provides Support to Indigenous Mayan Women

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artisan, cooperative, Fair trade, Guatemala, indigenous communities, Mayan women, Oxlajuj B'atz', Rabinal, San Rafael, weaving

Beginning in the 1970s and 80s during the devastating Guatemalan civil war, indigenous Mayan women have organized themselves into community weaving cooperatives, as a financial, emotional, and social support mechanism. To learn more about Aj’kemb’ Atz – a Mayan weaving cooperative in the small town of San Rafael, in the central highlands of the country – check out the following video!

Tracing the Threads: Traditional Mayan Weaving

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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.”