In 2007, with the expert direction of Monica Aldana and the cooperation of many others, Mayan Hands produced a film which is posted on You Tube in four parts.
I think you will enjoy watching this first section of the film. It was created after Hurricane Stan devastated some villages throughout Guatemala and is a big thank you to those who helped during that time.
Watch this! You will see some familiar faces. It will bring Mayan Hands to life for you...
Thank you to Anne and Mark's son Dan for posting this to the web. Big shout out to the Kelly-Van Wormers.
Mayan Hands is a fair trade organization founded in 1989 that partners with talented Mayan weavers in their quest to bring their families out of extreme poverty. These women and their families are able to continue to live within the culture they cherish. In this video, weavers talk about their lives, their work, their hopes and dreams, and the difference that Fair Trade has made to them, their families, and their communities.
I am filled with gratitude after the trip...
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Iximché
Though it seems long ago, on Sunday 11/29, after visiting the market of Chichicastenango, we stopped on the way back to Guatemala City at the ancient Mayan site called Iximché.
The site was largely preserved by the Spanish due to their alliance with the Kaqchikel against the K'iche'. The Spanish under Pedro de Alvarado arrived on 12 April 1524 and were well received by the lords Belehé Qat and Cahi Imox. After continuing through Atitlán, Escuintla and Cuscatlán, the Spanish under Alvarado returned to Iximché in July 1524 and founded their first capital.
We walked amidst the former palaces, ball courts and temple sites. Thousands of years ago it was a thriving community. Within two years of the famous Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado's arrival there, all the Mayans in the area had either been killed or died of illness.
Sobering. The butchery of empire doesn't really change through the ages.
The site was largely preserved by the Spanish due to their alliance with the Kaqchikel against the K'iche'. The Spanish under Pedro de Alvarado arrived on 12 April 1524 and were well received by the lords Belehé Qat and Cahi Imox. After continuing through Atitlán, Escuintla and Cuscatlán, the Spanish under Alvarado returned to Iximché in July 1524 and founded their first capital.
We walked amidst the former palaces, ball courts and temple sites. Thousands of years ago it was a thriving community. Within two years of the famous Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado's arrival there, all the Mayans in the area had either been killed or died of illness.
Sobering. The butchery of empire doesn't really change through the ages.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Home Again: Mayan Hands Holiday Sales
Re-entry is always so interesting. Travel is an exceptional experience where one can be immersed in a different culture, exposed to new places and people.
Wasn't it just yesterday that we were speaking with Juana in Chichi about the Mayan lifestyle?
And now: home to emails, search for freelance work, cold rain and updates from friends and family.
Mayan Hands USA coordinates holiday sales in churches through the Capital Region of New York State. Brenda Rosenbaum just provided me a list of upcoming December sales.
Please make your way to one of these locations and check out the wonderful offerings. What a way to do your holiday shopping and support Fair Trade. Your loved ones will be so happy with what they receive!
MAYAN HANDS HOLIDAY SALES
December 5 & 6
St Vincent de Paul, Albany, after the masses on Saturday and Sunday
St Matthews Catholic Church, Voorheesville, after the masses on Saturday and Sunday
St John the Baptist Catholic Church, Valatie, after the masses on Saturday and Sunday
December 5
Delmar Farmers Market, Delmar Presbyterian Church, 9am to 1pm, corner of Delaware and Cherry Ave in Delmar
December 6
First Reformed Church, Fair Trade Fair, at the Stockade in Schenectady. 11am to 4pm
December 10 & 11
Pastoral Center, 40 North Main Ave., Albany, 10am to 4 pm
December 12 & 13
St. Thomas the Apostle, Delmar, after the masses
St. John’s/St. Ann’s, Albany, after the masses
Christ, Sun of Justice, Troy, after the masses
December 13
First Presbyterian Church, Albany, 10 am to 1 pm
Delmar Reformed Church, Delaware Ave, 10 am to 1 pm
December 19 & 20
St. Peter's Catholic Church, Saratoga Springs, after the masses
Wasn't it just yesterday that we were speaking with Juana in Chichi about the Mayan lifestyle?
And now: home to emails, search for freelance work, cold rain and updates from friends and family.
Mayan Hands USA coordinates holiday sales in churches through the Capital Region of New York State. Brenda Rosenbaum just provided me a list of upcoming December sales.
Please make your way to one of these locations and check out the wonderful offerings. What a way to do your holiday shopping and support Fair Trade. Your loved ones will be so happy with what they receive!
MAYAN HANDS HOLIDAY SALES
December 5 & 6
St Vincent de Paul, Albany, after the masses on Saturday and Sunday
St Matthews Catholic Church, Voorheesville, after the masses on Saturday and Sunday
St John the Baptist Catholic Church, Valatie, after the masses on Saturday and Sunday
December 5
Delmar Farmers Market, Delmar Presbyterian Church, 9am to 1pm, corner of Delaware and Cherry Ave in Delmar
December 6
First Reformed Church, Fair Trade Fair, at the Stockade in Schenectady. 11am to 4pm
December 10 & 11
Pastoral Center, 40 North Main Ave., Albany, 10am to 4 pm
December 12 & 13
St. Thomas the Apostle, Delmar, after the masses
St. John’s/St. Ann’s, Albany, after the masses
Christ, Sun of Justice, Troy, after the masses
December 13
First Presbyterian Church, Albany, 10 am to 1 pm
Delmar Reformed Church, Delaware Ave, 10 am to 1 pm
December 19 & 20
St. Peter's Catholic Church, Saratoga Springs, after the masses
Monday, November 30, 2009
Goodbye to Guatemala
Tomorrow I leave this land of eternal spring where I have spent close to the last two weeks experiencing the Guatemalan side of Mayan Hands, traveling to villages, enjoying the company of my companions and being well cared for by our hosts...
but most of all getting to see the women in their homes where they produce the weaving we purchase in the United States at church and home sales, from the website, in Fair Trade stores thoughout the country.
It has been an exceptional experience. Our guide Deb was right, our itinerary changed but almost always in new and interesting ways. We spent days traveling together documenting and getting to know small pieces of a country that have sustained a weaving tradition for thousands of years.
We have met women who struggle to support their families and build peace in their families and nation. I have been amazed at the resplendent colors and the seemingly unending challenges of simply surviving day to day.
Goodbyes are always somewhat melancholy but maybe I have grown used to them with all the traveling I have done. I have a friend who never says goodbye at all... She just always assures me we will see each other again.
That is how I feel as I leave.
Hasta la proxima!
Please check back for photos and for other posts about the experience and sales and news in December. More to come! Great to have you traveling with me.
but most of all getting to see the women in their homes where they produce the weaving we purchase in the United States at church and home sales, from the website, in Fair Trade stores thoughout the country.
It has been an exceptional experience. Our guide Deb was right, our itinerary changed but almost always in new and interesting ways. We spent days traveling together documenting and getting to know small pieces of a country that have sustained a weaving tradition for thousands of years.
We have met women who struggle to support their families and build peace in their families and nation. I have been amazed at the resplendent colors and the seemingly unending challenges of simply surviving day to day.
Goodbyes are always somewhat melancholy but maybe I have grown used to them with all the traveling I have done. I have a friend who never says goodbye at all... She just always assures me we will see each other again.
That is how I feel as I leave.
Hasta la proxima!
Please check back for photos and for other posts about the experience and sales and news in December. More to come! Great to have you traveling with me.
The Legendary Market of Chichicastenango
On Saturday we arrived in Chichi (as natives call it here and it means place of the stinging nettles) a beautiful city in the highlands at a higher altitude than we had previously visited. My traveling companions were rested and refreshed after their adventure out in Morales overnight. Our host in Chichi, Juana, was making sure at every step that people were rested, well fed, comfortable. Thank you, Juana.
On Saurday Juana brought us to a sacred Mayan altar high on a hillside outside the city. We had purchased candles for our intentions and to honor the energy of the day (the sign of water ... one of thirteen days in the Mayan calendar). A local shaman was using the site for his own prayer. We lit candles and placed them on the altar.
We were all grateful to Juana for sharing her belief system and teaching us about this ancient tradition. She also welcomed us into her gallery located in her family home where she told us about the groups of women who make paper and then paint tradition symbols onto the paper to earn an income. Juana has just started as a field worker with Mayan Hands though she has many year of experience with groups.
Everyone was setting up for the Sunday market and it seemed the town did not sleep!
Waking up early on Sunday and walking the whole market, the local and the tourist, was lots of fun. Colors, textures, vendors hawking their goods, abundant flowers for sale to offer in the churches, local fruits like granadilla...
Please come back. I will post a photo that will transport you there.
Travel home tomorrow and visiting some sites today nearby and getting ready for the transition home.
On Saurday Juana brought us to a sacred Mayan altar high on a hillside outside the city. We had purchased candles for our intentions and to honor the energy of the day (the sign of water ... one of thirteen days in the Mayan calendar). A local shaman was using the site for his own prayer. We lit candles and placed them on the altar.
We were all grateful to Juana for sharing her belief system and teaching us about this ancient tradition. She also welcomed us into her gallery located in her family home where she told us about the groups of women who make paper and then paint tradition symbols onto the paper to earn an income. Juana has just started as a field worker with Mayan Hands though she has many year of experience with groups.
Everyone was setting up for the Sunday market and it seemed the town did not sleep!
Waking up early on Sunday and walking the whole market, the local and the tourist, was lots of fun. Colors, textures, vendors hawking their goods, abundant flowers for sale to offer in the churches, local fruits like granadilla...
Please come back. I will post a photo that will transport you there.
Travel home tomorrow and visiting some sites today nearby and getting ready for the transition home.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Overnight in Morales after Vasconcelos
That´s how the rest of my group spent yesterday. I am curious to see them this morning after their unplanned night out in a village since the road was closed to Panajachel. I returned at midday with Mayan Hands accountant, Julio Cardona who was kind enough to give me a ride back to the hotel since I was feeling under the weather.
Fine now but really curious about the night out in the village.
Our visit yesterday in the morning to Vasconcelos was quite interesting. The women their make many of the fine table runners, jaspe and honeycomb weave, that Mayan Hands has available for sale.
The group of about 10 women gave us a demonstration of how they wash and prepare the cotton thread. They use a warping board to create the warp and also use atole to strengthen the thread used for the warp.
They use small sticks and pieces of wood as heddles and pieces of the loom. I am fascinated by this process. While I have been a quilter for many years, I have never learned to weave. This may be the start of something.
It takes about 2 days to prepare the yearn and then to set up the loom for work. Yesterday the women told me that it takes about four additional days to weave a jaspe tablerunner. The women work and care for children at the same time. In Vasconcelos we were surrounded by chickens and serenaded by the turkeys in a pen nearby. Children played around us. Men were working in the field cultivating corn and beans.
When you buy Mayan Hands products, you are supporting a traditional lifestyle, supporting income for women, supporting the education and alimentation of children. The women have had a difficult year. Sales are down. Their incomes are down.
Their spirits are not. While there are no new orders for December, they have hopes for the new year. So do we.
Fine now but really curious about the night out in the village.
Our visit yesterday in the morning to Vasconcelos was quite interesting. The women their make many of the fine table runners, jaspe and honeycomb weave, that Mayan Hands has available for sale.
The group of about 10 women gave us a demonstration of how they wash and prepare the cotton thread. They use a warping board to create the warp and also use atole to strengthen the thread used for the warp.
They use small sticks and pieces of wood as heddles and pieces of the loom. I am fascinated by this process. While I have been a quilter for many years, I have never learned to weave. This may be the start of something.
It takes about 2 days to prepare the yearn and then to set up the loom for work. Yesterday the women told me that it takes about four additional days to weave a jaspe tablerunner. The women work and care for children at the same time. In Vasconcelos we were surrounded by chickens and serenaded by the turkeys in a pen nearby. Children played around us. Men were working in the field cultivating corn and beans.
When you buy Mayan Hands products, you are supporting a traditional lifestyle, supporting income for women, supporting the education and alimentation of children. The women have had a difficult year. Sales are down. Their incomes are down.
Their spirits are not. While there are no new orders for December, they have hopes for the new year. So do we.
Panabaj, Santiago Atitlan, 11-25
Let me back track a bit. On the day before Thanksgiving, we visited a group in Panabaj that weaves on a backstrap loom (oh yes pictures would help here, but imagine the weaver strapping the loom around her waist, attaching it to a post and kneeling on a palm mat to do her work).
They make the Children of the World products, woven with beautiful colors with impeccable technique.
We met at the home of the leader of the group Maria Victoria. Panabaj is located minutes away from the town of Santiago Atitlan, one of the villages along the magnificent Lago Atitlan. As we crossed from Panajachel in a launch, we could see all the volcanoes around the lake, the fisherman out in boats and the terrible algal bloom of coliform bacteria that has been caused by sewage flowing directly into the lake since Hurrican Stan in 2005.
The women not only make these products they clothe themselves in a woven traje that includes a shirt, huipil and a skirt, corte. Each village has a traditional style of weaving, a color scheme, and symbols that have significance in the Mayan cosmology. In these villages birds are particularly important... We could see them, from herons to kingfishers, all along the shoreline.
Their huipiles are covered with birds. Embroidered, woven... The birds have flown right onto the cloth. Just as I suspected. There is a surfeit of beauty here amongst all the difficulty.
Thanks for reading. Today we go to Chichicastenango to visit Juana (the Mayan Hands fieldworker) who has also been involved in her own project making paper and teaching women to paint using acrylics. This should be really interesting.
They make the Children of the World products, woven with beautiful colors with impeccable technique.
We met at the home of the leader of the group Maria Victoria. Panabaj is located minutes away from the town of Santiago Atitlan, one of the villages along the magnificent Lago Atitlan. As we crossed from Panajachel in a launch, we could see all the volcanoes around the lake, the fisherman out in boats and the terrible algal bloom of coliform bacteria that has been caused by sewage flowing directly into the lake since Hurrican Stan in 2005.
The women not only make these products they clothe themselves in a woven traje that includes a shirt, huipil and a skirt, corte. Each village has a traditional style of weaving, a color scheme, and symbols that have significance in the Mayan cosmology. In these villages birds are particularly important... We could see them, from herons to kingfishers, all along the shoreline.
Their huipiles are covered with birds. Embroidered, woven... The birds have flown right onto the cloth. Just as I suspected. There is a surfeit of beauty here amongst all the difficulty.
Thanks for reading. Today we go to Chichicastenango to visit Juana (the Mayan Hands fieldworker) who has also been involved in her own project making paper and teaching women to paint using acrylics. This should be really interesting.
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