Yolanda
Yolanda lives in a pine clad mountainous village near the town of Chichicastenango in the highlands of Guatemala. As a child she helped with the backstrap weaving process and by the time she was a teenager she had learned the ancient craft under the tutelage of her mother. Eventually she was invited to join her mothers weaving group as an official working member.Yolanda has a special gift and connection to her work. She’s a traditional “carrier” of the art and culture of backstrap weaving. Her design ability and expertise makes her artistically and technically exceptional. With her innate talent and now years of experience, she has become one of Maya Traditions best weavers.
Yolanda’s story is one of success. After finishing 6th grade, she chose the traditional life of a weaver. Now she is married to a farmer and they have two children. The income Yolanda has earned over the years has helped her buy land and build three small adobe houses. In Guatemala this equates to social security and an inheritance for her children.
Yolanda helps her community by teaching adult literacy. Apart from her weaving group she is the president of a woman’s group with 16 members. The group writes projects and seeks funding for issues important to other K´iche woman in their village. As Maya Traditions grows, so does Yolanda. She now serves as a community representative of the Foundation where she is a spokesperson for the needs, desires, and opinions of her weaving group.
ANTONIA
Antonia is an exceptional woman with a sad but inspiring story. Antonia is the founder of her weaving group which formed inresponse to a massacre in her mountain village in the highlands of Western Guatemala in the early 1980´s. Antonia’s strong leadership and values have supported the women in her group for over twenty years. Traditionally, weaving was a cultural activity for indigenous women who wove almost exclusively for their families. However, after many women lost their husbands, brothers, fathers, and uncles, selling their weavings became an economic strategy vital to their survival. Antonia works to help her group gain markets for their weavings, aiding in the economic vitality of her community.
In 1995, Antonia’s group began working with Maya Traditions in the development of new samples. This Fair Trade relationship thrived and now supports the 22 members of this weaving group. In collaboration with the Maya Traditions, her group received and paid back a loan for communal land where group member’s plant and harvest corn to then sell when yearly supplies dwindle. These funds serve as capital for the groups weaving projects.
One of Antonia’s most successful initiatives resulted in the building of a community center for their group on their communal land. The weavers and their families provided labor needed to build the community center while Maya Traditions and the Canadian Government’s fund for Local Initiatives paid for materials.
Two of Antonia’s children were of the first group of students who graduated with help from the Maya Traditions Scholarship fund. Her son, Gilberto, is now in his third year of medical school at the San Carlos University in Guatemala City. Her daughter, Yolanda, is learning leadership skills as an intern with our partner organization Oxlajuj Bátz (Thirteen Threads) where she helps facilitate adult education.
Antonia’s leadership style is participatory; she is respected for her honesty and strength in resolving conflicts. Antonia has taught us the mutual respect that must take place between indigenous leadership and foreigners in a role of assisting development. Antonia is currently a representative to Maya Traditions. Her participation will help guide our organization, providing a link between her community and ours and the necessary feedback that we need to fulfill our mission.
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