Over the years, Murray Mintz has seen Maya Traditions grow and transform. Now the President of the Foundation, Murray often thinks about the years when his late wife and our founder Jane Mintz first began visiting Guatemala and working with indigenous female artisans. What began as a personal initiative has grown into a social enterprise, partnering with over seven cooperatives of indigenous female artisans. Many of these artisans are the same women that Jane met many years ago, that recognize Murray from those early years, and who often tell us stories of Jane’s kindness and loving nature. Here, Murray reflects on founder Jane and the early years of Maya Traditions.  

When I met Jane Stiller in 1970, she had just moved to San Francisco. We had gone to the same high school, and knew who each other were, but that was just about it.  A mutual friend had come to town and insisted that she join us for dinner. The moment we met at that restaurant there was a magical spark.  We were married in about a year.

Jane had an MSW degree from Columbia University and had just left a job as a Social Worker at Denver General Hospital.  Social work fit her personality, as she was a very kind and giving person, but the work can be stressful and she’d burned out. After working there for a couple of years, she decided to pursue her art.  She was a very good painter and sculptor and also had a gift for photography. On a lark, she took a class in tapestry weaving. That course changed her life.

Her travels first took her to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, to take art courses at the local Instituto.  Her interest in weaving took her to the towns near Oaxaca, primarily Teotitlán del Valle, where she met and worked with weavers. While on one of those trips, she met someone who suggested that if she were interested in weaving and textiles, a visit to Guatemala was a must. From there, she found her way to Lake Atitlan and Panajachel, where like many before her, she fell in love with the magical lake and its people.

Jane with artisan Antonia in Chuacruz

Artisan Matea in the late 90s

She immediately found herself wanting to return again and again, funding those trips by buying backstrap woven goods from Maya women who peddled their work on the street and selling them at flea markets on weekends in the Bay Area. After a trip or two, and befriending many indigenous women, mostly war widows, and seeing their poverty and enormous needs, she stopped being a weaver; the Social Worker within her returned.

Shortly thereafter, she met Martha Lynd, who was already working with a few weaving cooperatives in the Highlands.  Martha introduced her to these groups and rather than buying on the street, looking for the lowest prices, Jane, along with Martha, came to realize that the women needed better incomes and social services to improve the quality of their lives and their families.  What began as a “tipico” import/export business eventually grew to become a non-profit known as Fundacion Tradiciones Mayas (Maya Traditions Foundation), dedicated to preserving backstrap weaving and to helping provide a living wage to the weavers. In the next five years, the Foundation grew to include social programs in the areas of women’s empowerment, educating the children of the weavers, and promoting health programs.

Sadly, Jane passed in 2009, but left behind a thriving organization dedicated to preserving her work and vision. She would be thrilled to know that her work continues.