Saving the Weavers (English R1)

Full title is Saving the Weavers: Small Assistance Programs for Maya Women in Highland Guatemala. The 36-year Civil War (1960-96) decimated the indigenous Maya population of Guatemala. Many of those who survived were widows without a means to support themselves or their families. This documentary focuses on ten extraordinary people who saw the desperate need and dedicated years of their lives to setting up small assistance programs and finding markets for products made by Maya weavers. Produced by the educational nonprofit Endangered Threads Documentaries.

[@rustygold598]

This was so well done!!! Thanks everyone involved for your efforts. Very interesting!!

[@wisuvi]

Thank you for these videos. As an indigenous weaver my self here in Arizona, I empathize with these Mayan weavers. In that what it takes to produce a weaving, time, skill and dedication. I learned to weave to re-connect with tradition and to produce garments for family for ceremonies. I see the connect with the wage economy, cost of living, and how it effects what monetary value you place on your weavings. These videos are striking a chord with me in that they are telling a story that we Hopi/ Pima have experienced about 100 years ago. Thanks again for these videos.

[@endangeredthreads3966]

What an interesting comment. Thank you for that! Stay tuned. More is coming.

[@suzz1776]

I just started learning how to backstrap weave. Iv made 3 straps so far, very basic. And my gosh, it is so much work. What these Mayan women can do is truly beautiful and I know I can never do what they do, so much love and many props to them!!!

[@purpleduracell]

I have seen Maya Color's products in person, they are amazing!

[@standincub]

This video is so interesting. I have never seen Maya weaving before but it looks so beautiful. I'm glad to see organizations that respect the weavers work making an effort to preserve it and to help the maya women make an income.

[@endangeredthreads3966]

Thank you for your comments. Stay tuned. More videos are in the process. Kathleen

[@soniatriana9091]

Even though I disagreed about the Mayan Dolls that Jane Mintz referenced, this video was very detailed & beautifully produced! Thank you for making & sharing this video. It really highlights the negative consequences, pain, & suffering that wars cause! Especially to the innocent indigenous caught in the middle of it. I hope that they can continue to maintain their language, culture, and traditional crafts/skills. To lose any aspect of your cultural heritage is to slowly lose your identity. Therefore, we all need to honor, respect, & value their traditions & their humanity.

[@nancybaldwin1811]

They have a beautiful community. I love how they can continue in their traditions.

[@sylviastreet413]

I would love to support this work, but as a senior on an extremely fixed income I am financially unable to participate

[@joannecurrie6833]

The garments they make are beautiful I would love to learn how to do that

[@tazeem45]

very nice

[@joannecurrie6833]

I would love to learn this kind of project but here in Scotland we don't have anybody that's willing to show people this kind of work. whare can I learn this work and get the materials to start it from please . I dare say if we had someone here to help people to set things like this up there wouldn't be as much people sitten bored.

[@guinevereobroin5712]

Hun there are tons of weavers in the UK alone. Go onto facebook and lookup weaving or if you want to try it lookup tablet weaving.

[@soniatriana9091]

I disagree with Mayan Traditions about the fact that they “created” Mayan Dolls. I have several Guatemalan Mayan Dolls that are over 60 years old. The Mayan have always had & made dolls. Their children are probably playing with a broken Barbie dolls bc someone gave them a Barbie from the U.S. Kids will play with any doll they are given.

[@MsLaBajo]

When Deborah Chandler says, "We buy the yarn, deliver it to the women, tell them what we want them to make," ugh... it makes me so angry, the colonial attitudes haven't changed a bit!

[@MsLaBajo]

She doesn't understand what weaving is or weaving itself or indigenous textile artists. So gross and disappointing. This is why Maya women need to own their own businesses and run their own cooperatives. They don't need saving. Gross.

[@witsue]

MsLaBajo so sad you don’t have the least understanding of what is going on.

[@MorganJServices]

You didn't listen long enough. The Fair Trade Organization said the business is not about saving an art. It's about saving the PEOPLE.

[@deborahchandler1367]

At the risk of stirring up a hornet’s nest, I am going to try to explain our behavior a little better to MsLaBajo. You are absolutely right, there is an element of colonialism in what we do. But there is far more to it than that. The line you quote could well be finished with “and we tell them what we want them to make because that is what will sell to the export market, which is where they can earn an income.” Approximately no one in the US, and not nearly enough people in Guatemala, are interested in buying traditional huipils or other items the women would make for their own use. They love them here in Guatemala, but out of context they have no use. The local market is super-saturated, like being in a monsoon 24/7/365, and hardly any Mayan weavers can make a living selling locally. Tens of thousands are trying, and far more have given up, many going to work in factories in the city instead. What Mayan Hands and other ngo-s have to offer is a wider market, which requires a wider product offering. With that the women can earn money that enables them to create their own weavings for their own lives, something fewer and fewer Mayan women can do. Since the making of this video, the huipil market for Mayan women has changed to a staggering degree, and now, for reasons of both fashion and economics, machine made and even printed huipils are selling like pan caliente - to Mayan women. While older, more traditional women (and we non-Mayans who also love traditional textiles) are horrified, younger women are flocking to them as the new style, as are poorer women who suddenly can once again wear something that looks like a huipil, a luxury that has become out of reach for ever-increasing numbers. The other main point I would make is that these women are not stupid. They know the difference between what they weave to sell and what they weave for themselves, what is for a customer and what is for their own traditions. And so do we. What we offer them - offer, not force upon - is a chance to have both. They are using a skill they have to bring in cash that will feed their kids, send them to school, get them medical care. Yup, that’s colonialism, a cash economy. It’s the world we all live in, like it or not, and we are glad to be able to help them manage it. If you are willing to learn more, ask your library to get you a copy of Traditional Weavers of Guatemala - Their Stories, Their Lives. It tells the stories of 20 artisans, weavers and others working with fiber, and how their art and earning a living are an integrated core to their lives. I’ll give you one quote that might ease your mind, from Herminia Santos of San Antonio Aguas Calientes, who wove for 60 years before having to give it up for back pain: “When Herminia spoke of changes in fashion and other events that affected sales, she gave us a question and answer rolled into one: “How did I decide what to weave? I wove what would sell.”

[@zephyr2010ac]

@@MsLaBajo why not introduce them to something like etsy? They won't need anyone to tell them what to do or how to do it, they can set their own prices and benefit from their hard work - cut out the middle "women". I'm sure the weavers know exactly what kind of weave other people want; after all it was they who developed the weave over more than half a millennia. It makes me wonder how much the middle "women" gain - how much do the Maya women get for all their hard work? A month at least to make a huip'il and they get, what, 25 dollars? - Shame :/ Oh well, what do I know?

[@Felipachipana]

JijijI