#cojolya

Xisqara! (Buenos Días, Hello) This is a Clutch Pacaya with a detachable recycled leather strap made by Maya Tz'utujil artisans of Cojolya Association of Maya Women Weavers. The textile is hand-dyed, and then hand-woven on the back-strap loom. Cojolya is a registered non-profit in Guatemala, and it was founded in 1983 to preserve the art of the back-strap in Santiago Atitlán as a sustainable source of income for women during the civil war. From 3 weavers, the association has grown to over 40 artisans. Cojolya is registered as fair trade by the World Fair Trade Organization and believes in fair, ethical, and slow fashion.  50% of the price goes directly to the artisans, 25% goes to social programming (scholarships and free community classes), and around 25% of the price is materials, rent, etc. 

Cojolya Association of Maya Women Weavers is a fair trade NGO located in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, which empowers female artisans to support their families through weaving. The aim of Cojolya is the conservation of the millenial Maya tradition of backstrap loom weaving as well as the customs and traditions that surround it as an economically viable source of employment for our woman weavers.

Since years they've been wanting to create a wall with the artisans' pictures, so that the visitors could somehow "get to know" them, into their boutique/office/small weaving museum. 

Creating this wall installation was the volunteering project I undertook with Giulia, my travel mate. 

After an artisans' gathering (in which all the women were invited to take collective decisions), Giulia took photographic portraits of 24 artisans: all of them were women (the weavers)  except from Pablo, the tailor, Tomàs, the Jaspe dying expert and Antonio, the production manager. 

They came in their brightly coloured traditional clothes, some with their children, and they all looked very happy to see one each-other. 

After the shooting, I talked with each of them, with the help of Antonio's translations from Spanish into Tzu'tujil (the local maya language) and back. 

A few were very timid in their speaking, but always came up with important subjects in their words. Some have difficult stories behind them and joining the Association has really been a way to escape from poverty. 

Few others were quite talkative and looked genuinely happy to share their story and ideas, looking into my eyes, smiling and moving their hands vividly, while I couldn't understand nothing but very few words, waiting for Antonio's precious translation.