Handmade with Maya Wisdom

My name is Caryn Maxim. I live in NJ but spend 2 weeks of each month in Cajola, a Maya Mam community in the western highlands of Guatemala. (The Mam people are one of the 22 Maya ethnic groups in Guatemala.) I have been helping a group of women start a weaving cooperative, MayaMam Weavers, over the past years. I would like to share with you some of their work, some of their stories, some of their wisdom, as well as why fair trade -- or trading fairly -- matters.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Introducing MayaMam Weavers

We are a group of Maya Mam women from the town of Cajolá in Guatemala. (The Mam people are the oldest of the Maya, and the second largest group of Maya today in Guatemala.) For us Maya, weaving has been a way for thousands of years to express our identity and our love of beauty and to relay the wisdom of our ancestors. Our ancestors left an extraordinary legacy to us and to all of humanity -- a vision of the universe that allows us to know our place in that universe and that guides our lives in harmony with every other person’s purpose in life so that we all develop to our full potential.

1 comment:

Rachel BielMay 24, 2011 at 6:01 PM
Yay! Have fun with your new blog! People love looking at photos of people, of how they weave and of life in other places, so post away! It will be a great record of your work there!
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