Elena is one of our artisan partners who will be traveling to the Smithsonian Museum in September through our partnership with Unlocking Silent Histories. Unlocking Silent Histories aims to support indigenous youth through learning opportunities that lead to critical and creative media expression. Recently, our staff sat down with Elena to ask her some questions regarding her upcoming trip to the United States: What is the role of backstrap weaving in your life? For me, weaving is the traditional way to sustain the life of a Maya woman. Weaving is our work and the cornerstone of my life. What are you
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Volunteer Christine here! Today I had the chance to sit down with one of our partner artisan weavers, Yolanda, to ask how she defines cultural preservation and if she sees her work within the context of cultural preservation. For a little back story, Yolanda identifies as Maya K’iche and Guatemalan, she has been weaving with Maya Traditions for over fifteen years! She is very skilled with brocade and so when we have a new client ask for a textile sample, she is one of the artisans who may come in to weave it, which is why she came to the office today.
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Maya Traditions offers the unique opportunity to learn the ancient art of backstrap weaving alongside one of our artisan partners in Guatemala. Here, a recent participant of the class shares her experience: Backstrap weaving is a beautiful Maya art that preserves traditional culture for the women of Guatemala. The textiles create beautiful handbags, blankets, and clothing and going into Guatemala I was so excited to bring back these amazing products to show every one the work done by these artisan women. I thought that just by watching the women work for hours, I would be able to understand the work
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The success of our work at Maya Traditions is made possible through the constant support of volunteers. Here, we introduce volunteer Christine who is currently supporting our work in Guatemala: Hello there and happy Tuesday! Christine here! Just a bit about myself, I love to sing, run, eat, do portrait photography, braid long hair, and sleep. I am also an ethical fashion blogger at Beyoutiful Hope and am a Master’s student studying International Trade with a focus on economic development. My master’s project looks into the multiple facets of Guatemalan indigenous textiles including mapping the production chain, analyzing the marketing of the textiles as
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Hi there! I can’t quite figure out how it’s already the end of week five here in Guatemala. On one hand it’s starting to feel normal here, which is incredibly exciting because that means we are adjusting and adapting! At the same time, however, there are still those moments where you step back and none of it feels real. We are so lucky. This past week has been one of many changes and accomplishments. After spending almost two weeks on fixing up the garden in San Juan La Laguna, we finally finished and were given the honor of presenting it
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Meet Edgar Morales Lopez, one of our wonderful staff members at Maya Traditions. Edgar helps manage the medicinal plant garden and leads informative tours for visitors. He looks forward to sharing the garden with you. Edgar Morales Lopez comes from a family of passionate gardeners. Growing up in Panajachel, he inherited a wealth of knowledge about growing and caring for medicinal plants from his mother who is a curandera, or healer. He also gained valuable landscaping and construction skills helping his father care for several properties as well as aiding in his parents’ plant business in the local market. Edgar
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Last Thursday, June 9th, Claire, our Community Tourism Coordinator and Larissa, our Sustainability and Fashion Intern, attended a meeting to discuss topics related with the preservation of Lake Atitlán. Maya Traditions is engaged and committed with the social environmental issues related with the lake, health, and better life quality for all living here. Eliza Strode and Daniel Radin from the organization “A Thread of Hope” are the organizers of these group meetings, in partnership with the Rotary Club and Hotel Cacique Inn. According to Eliza, this is an important community process we are engaged in, trying to build participation and consensus to support
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Here, volunteer Larissa shares a recent project we have been developing with the Flor Juanera cooperative based in San Juan la Laguna: The project first started to research the artisans’ methods of natural dyeing with the group Flor Juanera from San Juan la Laguna and then to create a manual they could follow to repeat the colours more consistently. A possible solution was creating recipes, so the process of producing the colours will not vary much and would be possible to control better the tones. The project happened according with these steps and goals: -To watch and learn the dye
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Hello, this is Claire speaking. I recently joined Maya Traditions as the new Community Tourism Program Coordinator and I cannot wait to bring my contribution to the foundation’s extraordinary work that has been done so far with the artisans. I come from France where I had the chance to work in tourism development and promotion institutions for around ten years after post-graduating in international tourism management in Australia. Also, I have travelled all around the world, sometimes for leisure, sometimes for work, and most recently volunteering in non-profit organisations. This experience made me wonder how tourism could support international development
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The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically. There is a big lack considering transparency in the average production system in which apparel products are manufactured, regarding employees conditions and fair wages, the material used, the impact the industry is having in ecosystems and clients’ consumption awareness. Fashion brands are now re-introducing eco-conscious methods at the source through the use of environmentally friendly materials and socially responsible methods of production and trade. We believe in building an industry that values people, the environment, creativity and profit in equal measure. We should start
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