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Galvain Cuy
“I find inspiration in the trees, the birds, the landscape. In a sense everything finds expression in my weaving. The colours and patterns and forms are everywhere.” Ms Gutierrez, an energetic woman of 33, is the director of Nueva Vida, a women´s weaving cooperative based in Teotitlán del Valle, the heartland of Mexican rug-making industry. Indigenous Zapotecs have been weaving here since prehispanic times, and many of their pieces feature patterns and symbols that have been passed down from generation to generation. But while the art of rug-making is ancient here, Nueva Vida has broken with tradition. The collective was started 10 years ago by a group of women hoping to improve economic and social conditions for themselves, their families and their community. Its name, ´Nueva Vida´ - ´Galvain Cuy´ in Zapoteco - literally means ´New Life´. When Nueva Vida was conceived it was the first time in Teotitlán del Valle that a group of women had embarked on such a venture, so it was initially met with criticism, particularly from older women. “The custom is that the role of an indigenous woman is limited to the house and family,” says Ms Gutierrez. The central goal of Nueva Vida is to empower its members through education, and in these early days workshops on self esteem and confidence proved particularly important. Nueva Vida received help from a local collective called GAEM (Grupo de Apoya a la Educación de la Mujer) whose mission is to support disadvantaged women through educational opportunities. GAEM founder and director Flor Cervantes says, “Nueva Vida first came to us with a focus to expand their market and improve their craft, but soon we realised that there were a host of life skills that they could benefit from learning.” Ms Gutierrez explains, “GAEM was very important because they gave us courage, even to visit Oaxaca on our own. They taught us to ask and express what we really thought, so we could communicate with people in official positions and seek out the resources available to us. As indigenous women we didn´t know how to negotiate and talk as equals. “Finally we were talking about things that were very important. For instance, we were speaking honestly about our feelings, our sexuality and learning about health and how our bodies operate. All this gave us confidence in all aspects of our lives.” Over the last decade, through working with GAEM and other organisations, Nueva Vida´s members have participated in courses spanning caring for the environment, healing and traditional medicine, domestic violence, design, accounting and business practice. Thanks to education in business they learned how to get what they rightly deserved for their rugs. Previously, Nueva Vida members sold through intermediaries, but at such low prices that what they made was barely enough to cover materials. They would then see their rugs being sold in shops for considerably more than what they were receiving. Another benefit from working independently is that members are now free to choose for themselves the designs, colours and sizes of their pieces, rather than simply working to orders. “The creativity has come back,” says Ms Gutierrez. Rugs may feature original designs, interpretations of famous paintings, or most commonly, traditional Zapotec patterns and symbols. These represent elements of nature and forces such as love, life and death. For example, a bird stands for liberty and infinity, while the design resembling Greek keys stands for protection, continuity, strength, grandeur and power. Nueva Vida is deeply committed to preserving and honouring the traditional artesanal processes of rug-making. They begin with raw dirty wool bought from a nearby village and months later have a finished product. Whilst Ms Gutierrez estimates that around half the rug-makers in Teotitlán del Valle rely on some chemical dyes to colour their yarn, Nueva Vida makes natural dyes the traditional way from ingredients such as plants, bark, nuts and the insect cochinilla. This is a time consuming process – for instance to produce 1kg of cochinilla dye to create shades of red, purple and orange, around 150,000 insects must be picked by hand. Ms Gutierrez says the time savings that could be obtained in using chemical dyes are outweighed by the knowledge that they are staying true to traditions. In addition she says, using chemical dyes can take its toll on the health of weavers along with that of the environment. Currently the collective has 14 members, ranging in age from 14 – 78. They are predominantly widows, single or solo mothers, but the collective is open to anyone who supports its ethos and has the time to commit to monthly meetings, workshops and occasional volunteer projects. The collective carries out some activities such as going into the hills to forage for dye ingredients together, but each woman weaves from her own home. Rugs are then sold through the Nueva Vida headquarters, which doubles as the home of Ms Gutierrez and six of her female relatives. Nueva Vida members don´t make enough money to live on from their rugs alone and must supplement their income with activities such as growing corn and raising chickens, but Ms Gutierrez is clear about the positive change Nueva Vida has made in their lives. There are now extra funds for medical emergencies, improving their homes and the schooling of their families. In Ms Gutierrez’s own family, thanks to the increased profits from selling rugs, three girls will be able to finish high school, whereas before they would have had to finish at age 13 or 14. But the thing that has pleased her most is the personal changes that she has seen in the collective´s members, such as bolstered confidence, young women choosing to wait longer to marry and have children, and greater equality and happiness in their marriages when they do. Criticism of Nueva Vida has also turned into approval and support from the community. The local authorities have given them a place and voice in town meetings, and the way that they have been able to improve the resources of their families has been noted. “Even some of the older women of the community who criticised us originally are now asking for or offering help,” says Ms Gutierrez. But Nueva Vida still regards itself as just beginning and has aspirations to be a ´real business´ with stable export markets and increased visibility in the local market. They also wish to improve the quality of their work and generally educate Mexicans to value their traditional arts. “And yes, we very strongly want to make a good living from our work,” says Ms Gutierrez. Summing up her feelings on weaving Ms Gutierrez says, “It’s a poem… it´s love” |
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