El Otro Lado del Lago

Tomorrow, Dolores and I will begin in-home visits with all of the women in the cooperative. One of our tasks throughout the visits will be to update the bios of each of the women in Just Apparel. The information that is currently on the website is several years old, so it’s important that we have the most up-to-date information for when we launch the new website and online marketplace. Additionally, meeting the women at their homes allows me to have a more in-depth conversation with each woman about her own perceptions, ideas and insight for the Just Apparel project and helps to build a personal relationship with each woman as well.

With this task on my mind and with today being Father’s Day, I began to reflect upon the women in the cooperative and how their relationships with their own fathers (or the fathers of their children) may differ from my own relationship with my father. In scanning the biographies of the women, I realized that while most of the women in the Just Apparel cooperative aren’t much older than myself, many have already lost their fathers to military conflict, murder, kidnapping, disaster, or disease. Some of the women are taking care of children who were orphaned and never knew their father, and many take care of their own biological children without the help of the child’s father. Guatemalan way of life has a culture that I’ve observed to be more collectivist and family-oriented than the American standard. I can’t even fathom how these women have persisted without the support of their own fathers or father figures for their children.

Children at the Puerta Abierta Biblioteca making Father's day crowns

In an email exchange with my own father today, he suggested that I consider the works of German sociologist Max Weber during my time working in Santiago. I was familiar with Weber’s “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” and have read articles by Weber in my political economic development courses at school. It was really interesting to contemplate some of Weber’s ideas in the context of the differences in inherent worldviews between myself and my Guatemalan partners.

When traveling to Panajachel (Pana) this weekend, I met a Guatemalan girl who had lived her whole life in Pana yet she shrugged and seemed nonchalant when she mentioned that she had never been to Santiago. A trip across the lake costs about U.S. $3 and takes less than an hour by boat. At first, I was shocked. How could she not even be curious about what was on the other side of the lake? But upon further reflection, I realized that she and many of her Guatemalan peers are struggling each day to simply survive, so my American-bred “quest for adventure” isn’t something that would have ever crossed her mind. A desire to travel has never entered her cultural framework, and isn't a part of her perception of how she lives her life.

My dad articulated it nicely in his email: because of my American upbringing, relative wealth and extensive educational background, I have a “fundamentally different zeitgeist from virtually all of the people you are now interacting with”. But I guess this is one of the reasons why I’ve chosen to study International and Intercultural Communication. Experiencing cultural difference is so deeply fascinating because even while we are learning about others, we are simultaneously learning even more about ourselves.

Some photos from our weekend exploring Panajachel and San Pedro de la Laguna:

At the Santiago dock about to take off for Pana

On the boat ride

With my homestay housemates and friends at the Pana dock

A tuk tuk (3 wheel taxis that roam the towns) named Brittany!

Markets in Pana

Pool party at the Piscina de San Pedro

Best BBQ on the Laguna

$5 Lunch

Bienvenidos a Santiago!

For an indigenous woman in Guatemala, even day-to-day life can be a constant challenge. The indigenous population makes up at least 60% of the country’s population, but their livelihood remains marginalized. According to my research for a paper for my graduate studies at the University of Denver, 87% of indigenous Guatemalans live in poverty and 61% live in extreme poverty (making less than $1.25 per day per person, according to the World Bank’s poverty measures). In indigenous communities where nine out of ten children under age five are malnourished, indigenous women are not only concerned about their own lives but also about the livelihoods of their families.

Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala is a small village of 40,000 residents located on Lago de Atitlán, the largest lake in Central America. 95% of the inhabitants are indigenous Mayans. The region was hit hard by the 36-year civil conflict in Guatemala from 1960-1996. The conflict and systematic marginalization of both women and indigenous people has left most of the women in Santiago Atitlán with very few marketable skills. Many women depend on artisan handicraft work to survive.

Approaching the docks at Santiago Atitlán, via boat from Panajachel

Women doing the day's washing 

Lago de Atitlán and Volcan San Pedro amongst the clouds

On our way to the market

I am spending the summer living in a homestay in Santiago Atitlán and working as the Project Development Intern for Natik, a U.S. based nonprofit that works together with community-based organizations in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico to transform marginalized communities through economic and educational empowerment.

Natik has been working in the Santiago Atitlán area since 2003. With Natik’s assistance, a group of 34 indigenous Mayan women have formed a microenterprise called Just Apparel in the community. Natik provides the materials for the handicraft work, and the women create beautiful woven handbags, tablecloths, pillowcases, and clothing from the thread. Once the items are sold, the women receive a portion of the profits, and a portion is retained for reinvestment. Additionally, a portion is allocated for a scholarship fund for secondary school for students in the community.

The Just Apparel scholarship fund has afforded at least 15 students with secondary school scholarships. Natik also operates The Puerta Abierta Biblioteca, which "offers creative learning opportunities to Santiago Atitlán children through preschool and kindergarten classes, after school enrichment programs, reading hours, homework help, and the traveling library, which spreads the joy of reading to the most remote parts of Santiago” (Natik.org, accessed June 1 2013).

A day of lessons at the Puerto Abierta Biblioteca

The biggest challenge facing the women of Santiago Atitlán is a lack of work for the artisans. The local tourist market for traditional embroidered goods is flooded, as there are too many women with the same skills and not enough local buyers. With such limited access to local markets to sell their artisan crafts, the women are forced to take on additional work that is often not paid at a fair, living wage.

My project in Santiago (as the locals shorten it) is to assist the cooperative of women to be able to earn a living wage through artisan craft sales by expanding the market for their crafts to include an international online marketplace. I will help with product design, pricing strategy, and website design for the Just Apparel website and online marketplace, as well as create and manage several other online portals such as an Etsy store. I will also be conducting in-house interviews with each of the women, working individually with each woman on her color preferences and embroidery styles in order to help her create and sell unique works of art. I will be writing short biographies of each woman in order to include information about the artist on a small card with each product when it is shipped to the consumer.

Meeting with some women in the cooperative at their homes to discuss fabrics

Monday was my first meeting with the women of the Just Apparel cooperative. At least 25 women came over to my neighbor’s house here in Santiago, and we sat in a big circle and talked about the next step for Just Apparel. I was introduced and we explained to the women that I will be working on the project for the next two months here in Santiago. The women were asked to bring over samples of their products so that we had an idea of what kind of skills the women already have, and how we could incorporate these skills into their future work with the cooperative.

The women of Just Apparel in our first group meeting

One of the examples of handwoven embroidery

The problem in this community isn’t the lack of desire to work but instead the lack of opportunity to work. I truly believe that this project has great potential for small-scale improvement in human livelihood, and I am looking forward to an incredibly rewarding summer!