Vida Nueva Women's Weaving Cooperative

At this point in the story, Gutierrez's sister Silvia, 26, finds some old pictures to show me. Members are encouraged to seek out opportunities for professional and personal development through attending courses, learning English and even participating in an international congress on the rights of indigenous women in New York. This cooperative was founded 20 years ago by Pastora Gutierrez and a group of women in the same extended family. But a woman named Flor Cervantes, who worked for a nonprofit organization, came into the village about 10 years ago and brought new ways of looking at things. Vida Nueva Women's Cooperative Contact Information. During the trip, we wore masks while in vehicles or working closely with the weavers. She showed us her own most recent work which is personal to her, so full of deep meaning and feminine wisdom. It is no wonder than handmade products can be significantly more expensive than their machine-made counterparts. They are also currently working on a project to build compost toilets for families in this area as there are no facilities, which means local rivers have become polluted. Each additional batch yields a wool color that is slightly lighter than the last. Instead, it features different white, brown, and black hues; all achieved by mixing different wool colors of different sheep. They were very publicly sued by the government and were further shunned in the community.

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Vida Nueva Women's Cooperative is a group of Zapotec women from Teotitlán del Valle, an indigenous Mexican community with centuries of weaving history. The ancestral tradition of weaving has been passed down for centuries in Teotitlán, each textile expressing a unique part of Zapotec culture through its colors and patterns–precolonial representations of the natural world and the cycles of life. It's a lovely local community to advance women's rights. Purchase Directly From Artisans. On an open fire nearby, pomegranate skins are simmering in a pot of water. However, the biggest impact changes in textile production have been in improving gender relations in otherwise patriarchal contexts. A Oaxacan rug is woven on a loom. As a member of the Otomí indigenous group, she practices a colorful-dreamlike embroidery known as "Tenango, " together with her family in Hidalgo, Mexico. Some of the women had husbands who never returned to Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, after migrating out for work. Cervantes was focused on helping the women support themselves by keeping chickens and pigs. At El Tono de La Cochinilla, most of the Oaxaca rugs in their sales room cost between $75-$600, depending on the rug's size, color, and design difficulty.

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It was once part of the sophisticated and powerful Zapotec civilization that ruled over the region. Each one will take months or more depending on its size and complexity of the design. Over a year ago, they got their first wholesale client, a new shop in Oaxaca that sells the work of various artisans, and their first export clients. Pastora Gutiérrez Reyes is a Zapotec woman and one of the founding members of the Vida Nueva (new life) Women´s Weaving Cooperative.

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Everything was great: accommodations, restaurants, dyeing, weaving, food, swimming excursion, Bowie, and of course, all the Thread Caravan women. Based on the principle of reciprocity (guelaguetza), the cargos system requires the head of each family to make contributions of money and/or to trade goods, and perform their share of community service throughout the year. For centuries families have handed down the weaving tradition from generation to generation. Under Cervantes' guidance, the women learned about their bodies, their business potential and how best to advocate for themselves. Oaxaca is the second-poorest state in Mexico, with historically low GDP growth relative to the national average. June 27, 7 PM - LEE'S. The man explained that they will spend 4 days preparing the feast, just as someone walked past with two upside down turkeys under his arm, feathers and all. Indigenous Mexican women living in these areas found it imperative to collectivize to navigate an oppressive socio-political landscape.

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They're keen to explore the unique values of international artisans, as well as the limitless potential for improvement for a better society with those values. They learned how they could make rugs and sell them from their homes instead of through dealers and markets. But the board that ran the village let the women be upfront and say their piece. We are here, we came to sow. Afterwards, the yarn is taken out and hung to dry. With these funds, they give back to the village and jumpstart a range of amazing initiatives, from recycling to senior care. Until the 1990s, women could not pursue education or obtain a drivers' license. They agreed that their work would be displayed together, promoted equally and sold directly to customers, with the sale of each piece going to the weaver, who then contributes a percentage of her earnings to the cooperative's shared fund. Aforementioned all the dyes are natural.

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Let's begin the conversation. The wool is tangled, knotted, and not yet fit to be spun into yarn. Despite the numerous contributions women make in traditional communities, they do not hold an equal position of respect and recognition. Gutierrez feels an immense gratitude toward Cervantes; she believes she is responsible for everything she and her group have achieved, and for the woman she is today.

Traveling to Mexico was also my first international trip since the start of COVID-19, and my first group travel experience in a decade. Getting There and Away: The Thread Caravan Oaxaca Textile Tour starts and ends at the Xoxocotlan International Airport in Oaxaca, Mexico. They employ 114 Zapotec women who, utilizing large floor looms, weave pillows, rugs, and other home decor items. Ms. Gutierrez, a leader for women's rights in the town of Teotitlán del Valle, in Mexico's Oaxaca State, was described in Lynn Stephen's book Zapotec Women (2005) and more recently in a Truthout story. This female weaving co-op promotes gender equality in Mexico in ways that people never before imagined. With just this basic introduction, the group was openly touched and impressed with the perseverance and determination in the history of the cooperative, because today they are an economic driver in the community - now hosting visitors, volunteers, tourists alike. There is a great need for economic opportunity in general for rural communities across the nation, but the need for female independence is becoming increasingly clear. Women have the opportunity to take leadership.

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 08:17:53 +0000