Our Cajola

In case you would like to know a little bit about where we live, our
Cajola is a mostly Maya Mam town in the western highlands of
Guatemala. It is beautiful here. We live among lots of mountains, and
you can see how beautiful it is when our corn is so high that it
nearly hides our houses. As you may know, corn is sacred for us Maya,
and the planting and growing and harvesting of corn is an important
part of our lives. Right now we are harvesting the corn and can eat it
fresh. We make a delicious drink called “atol de elote,” we eat the
corn right on the cob, we prepare it with a special squash named
“ayote” or we make special tamales called “tamals de elote.” Of
course, we eat corn all year long, but dried, in our tortillas,
tamales, and sauces. (You can ask us for a recipe if you are
interested!)

Unfortunately, there is a lot of poverty in our town -- half of our
children never have enough to eat. Some people don’t even have land to
grow their own corn. In our photos you can see the corn ready for
harvest, our market, and a traditional but old adobe house. (Many of
our family members have left for the U.S. to work to send money back
to build houses of concrete block.)

You can see why it is so important for us to be working, to make a
better world for our children.

Our Cosmovision or Our World View

First, sorry for not publishing yesterday, but we didn’t have any access to the Internet (not so unusual here in Cajola).

So, today we would like to share with you a small overview of our cosmovision, our view of the world that underlies our culture and our weaving.

“We are part of the earth, there is only one unity. That makes us be, live, share, communicate, and commune with her, as living beings, creators, and re-creators of life.”

“In Maya thinking, water, the sun, the earth, fire, air, and all the elements of nature are diverse manifestations that are the daily confirmation that the cosmos is a living and sacred being.”

“We believe that no species is superior to another. We are complementary elements, although different from each other; we are all linked in a network, like a spider’s web interwoven with relationships and interactions that are interdependent and complementary.”

“I am you and you are me.”

The photo below is a painting by Ely Lopez, a Maya spiritual guide who is a member of Grupo Cajola and who works with us from time to time to understand the meanings behind some of our symbols. We weave the symbols but sadly, don’t always remember what they mean.

At Last, Our Brown & Cream Diamond Table Runners

We are so happy to finally launch our brown and cream diamond table runners. When we learned to weave originally it was on a two-pedal foot loom. After we were weaving well on that loom, we wanted to try something more difficult. So, a master weaver came and showed us how to work with four pedals. That was a lot more difficult, and we had some painful experiences weaving entire bolts of fabric without noticing we had missed some threads in the warp, or had mixed up the order of the pedals. We had especially painful experiences with our brown and cream diamond fabric. But now, we are proud to say, we have mastered the diamond weave using the four pedals. With the collaboration of our sewing team and all the embroiderers, we proudly present our table runners and placemats (that match our emerald green diamond pattern) in brown and cream.

We have embroidered the same motifs you can find on our emerald green diamond runners, placemats, and napkins. We have embroidered "b'e" on the table runners and placemats, which stands for path, or our destiny. Destiny is an important Maya value, we think each human is born with special gifts and a plan how to use those gifts. If we don't find and follow our destiny, we will be unhappy and even ill.

We have embroidered "n'oj" on the napkins, which stands for wisdom. We believe wisdom comes with experience and reflection, especially in our spiritual ceremonies which are centered on our relationship with the universe and nature.

Please have a look at our brown and cream diamond table runners and placemats on our Etsy shop (www.mayamamweavers.etsy.com)

Saludos!

We are getting a new home!

Construction started this month on our new work area...it will be great! We will have a place to store our things out of the dust and rain, we will have good lighting to work by, and space to move around. You can see the BIG HOLE that is being built to support the structure. Actually, the new structure is being built by Grupo Cajola and includes this huge basement that will also serve for storage, our workspace, and a large conference room. We will be using the current conference room as part of our work area. Our current space will be converted into the preschool that the group is starting that will care for our preschool children and the children of our sister-business, the Egg Farm of Grupo Cajola. The plan is to complete the construction by the beginning of next year...we will see! We have the worst of the rainy season still to contend with. In the meantime, the hole is quite amazing.

Chatting with the Foot Loom Weavers

We weavers were chatting the other day about our group and how far we have come – and how far we still have to go – and how we really love weaving and we are so pleased to be able to begin to earn a living with our weaving. Nearly all of us learned to weave on the back strap loom when we were young, and we love working with the yarns and the beautiful colors. We had the opportunity to learn to weave on the foot loom after our group decided to start a business weaving. Little by little our work improved, and then we began to gain confidence in designing our own fabrics.

Recently, our challenge was to design a “happy fabric” to use to make cushions for the preschool that Grupo Cajola is starting. (Grupo Cajola is the organization that helped us first organize as a group and has been helping us start up our business.) We got together and thought about what colors are “happy” and picked pink as our warp (the length of the fabric). Then we decided to put broad stripes in red, yellow, and blue, so each cushion will have three broad stripes.

You can see the weaving in the photo; we hope you think it is “happy”!

Our Handbag Clutch with Backstrap Loomed Trim

We have added a new product to our Etsy store, a handsome (we think) handbag clutch in coal black or cobalt blue with embroidered trim.

We thought of this smallish clutch (around 6½” x 8½”) as a way to show off our traditional backstrap weaving with our traditional motifs. The top closes with a zipper – it took us awhile to learn how to set the zipper in nicely. And we fully lined them in our own jade cotton fabric. We have sewn a slip pocket inside that fits credit cards or business cards. (This was our first experience sewing a slip pocket, too!)

We are proud to present our handbag clutches!

Aprons and Sacred Corn

Our towels inspired us to make full aprons from the same striped fabric. On the bib of the apron we have embroidered an ear of corn. Corn is sacred for us Maya -- our creation story tells us that we are made of corn. And of course, corn is the basis of our diet, made into tortillas or tamales or delicious warm drinks called atol.

The growing of corn -- "the milpa" sets the rhythm of our living during the year. Most of us grow our own corn to eat, though sadly some are too poor to own land, and have to buy their corn with their scarce resources. We continue to follow the practice of our ancestors planting beans and squash in amongst our corn. Since corn and the earth are sacred, when we plant the corn we thank Mother Earth for letting us grow the corn.

Growing our corn even changes the appearance of our town. In January and February everything is dry and brown. After the corn has been planted in April or May (depending on the cycle of the moon) little by little the growing corn changes everything to green, until August or September when the cornstalks hide our houses except for the roofs peeking out.