Ana

I am originally from Santiago Atitlan in Guatemala, where I live in the town centre with my parents and my sister. 

My mother works specifically in backstrap weaving, selling to tourist shops in Atitlan. I started learning with my mother. At age 8 she taught me crochet first and then beading. Being so poor, we had to learn from a very young age. The shops that bought my mum’s products wanted her to create more and she couldn’t manage it on her own, so I asked her to teach me so that I could support her. 

I was 15 when my mum taught me and my sister how to weave. We started with the yarn, spinning it, and from there we started to learn to thread the loom. She taught me spacing and measurements. One or two years later she taught me all the tools necessary to weave. Threading the loom is hard and so she taught me slowly to make sure I learnt it properly. I can only do plain weave, though. Brocade is quite complicated and it’s taking me longer to learn. But I want to learn, because I don’t want our traditional garments to stay behind. Young women these days don’t really learn weaving like we used to and many don’t know how to do it. The youth prefers to learn computer skills, which is understandable, but sad at the same time.

My dream is that all the members in the community have a job so that they can have an income. I also want to help more women. If Luna Del Pinal could bring more work it would be incredible as we could create more jobs and help more women. My goal is that all products the artisans make are able to be appreciated internationally so that we can export them and have an income, help our kids and leave poverty. I also wish for men to understand the value of women and for equality to be the way of life.

Magdalena

I live in a village called Toj Chulup. Concepción Chiquirichapa, with my three kids; Axel Gudiel Sanchez Hernandez, Dayli Rudiseida Sanchez Hernandez and Melanie Diana Sanchez Hernandez. My husband doesn’t live with us and I don’t know if we will be able to live together again.

I started weaving when I was 8 years old. As my mum was always weaving I wanted to learn, but she didn’t really have time to teach me, so I would sit around her and look at what she was doing. She would try and explain whilst working, so I attempted warping the threads on a loom one day and I did well. That was fairly easy. To prepare the loom though, I found that very hard. I started weaving plain textiles and moved on to learning how to weave drawings.

My auntie asked me to weave her daughter a Huipil (a sleeveless tunic, traditionally worn by women in many regions of Mexico and Guatemala). It had to be 22” wide. It took me six months to weave it! But I did it. It was my first Huipil. I was 10. My mum advised me not to do it as it was really wide, but I wanted to try. At 12 I could weave Huipiles, belts, anything...

At 15 I suffered, as I would start weaving at 6am, stop at 11am, start again at 2pm until 5pm, then 6pm until 10pm. It was hard because my dad was not responsible. He would only drink and we would have to weave to provide for our family.

I am now teaching my girl. She is 12, but she weaves all sorts. When she is on holiday from school she weaves and I sell them for Q30-Q40 (£3). She likes it because she sells! I tell her that if she weaves she can get money and that will help her. Last year she earned Q300 (£30). She is now weaving all the time as because of Covid she is not going to school.

My dream is to work more with you (Luna Del Pinal). It helps me a lot with my family. As I was telling you, it’s still uncertain if I will ever live with my husband again. I want to work more with companies and we were working with a few different ones, but due to the virus we are not working so much now. You have been our only client this year. The other artisans also like it, helps with their families.

Lucas

I live in the municipality San Antonio Palopó, in the department of Sololá. I am right at the shore of the lake Atitlan. It’s going to be 26 years that I live with my wife. We have one son.

I came from a poor family. Well, not poor poor, because we all had hands and feet and all our five senses, but economically we were poor as my parents were farmers. So my mum started to back-strap weave through a cooperative. I started weaving at the same time as her. My mum told me at the time that I had to learn how to weave and make money, as with weren’t making ends meet with my dad working as a day labourer.

She started to practice and thank God it didn’t take her long to learn. She then bought a loom and gave it to me. I first learned how to warp the threads onto the loom. At the same time, my dad was learning how to weave, but the great master was my mum. She was the one who taught me how to do everything.

At one point, my uncle organised a group of artisans and managed to get some clients. He took me with him. He wanted me to make some samples and I realised that I found inspiration through nature; trees, flowers, rocks, the sun... I love this because it all comes from God. By weaving outside and looking at my surroundings, I started to really progress.

In my town, there is a huge necessity for weaving, especially amongst women. Men as well, but mainly women. They used to barely make 60cents a day and would have to survive on that with two, three, four children. A woman can’t survive with that money and that many kids. I asked God to help the women and also the kids. When kids go to school they need to be able to have snacks and food and also notebooks, but if the mum doesn’t have money, who helps them? No one. But thank God, he listened and he helped me. I am a sinner but God decided to listen and through a good friend of mine and his recommendation, I managed to secure an order with a German woman of 7000 straps for sandals. So with this order, the women in my town, instead of earning 60cents a day, went on to earn £6 a day. The idea of forming our own cooperative came from this and since that day our association is composed of around 29 women.

This is why I’m now worried. I’m knocking at everyone’s door to find work so that I can keep maintaining these women. We also have men now, specially with what’s going on.

So this is what I love most about weaving. To be able to give people work. Work is really low at the moment, but whenever anything comes through, I like to share it with them.

My dream is to be able to work a lot with International clients. They tend to get bigger orders and pay better prices for our work.