Trama Textiles, Guatemala

Printer-friendly version

“Why do you weave?” is a question with boundless answers. Weaving produces functional, aesthetic, and comforting items, and the process itself ranges from entertaining, meditative or creative to laborious and challenging. Whatever our reasons, weaving forms part of an identity, and can thus link people across boundaries of nationality, culture, and class through efforts at understanding.

 “[Weaving] es mi arte,” says Oralia of TRAMA Textiles, an association of Mayan weavers in the Western highlands of Guatemala. Like most indigenous backstrap weavers, Oralia’s mother taught her to weave at an early age: 8 years old. She likes to weave table runners because of the embroidery involved, but beyond enjoyment, Oralia says that weaving helps her family.

Fellow TRAMA member Amparo echoed this reason for involvement and said that she likes to weave pillowcases that contain traditional designs found on Mayan women's huipiles (blouses).

Tucked into the crest of a hill on a cobblestone street in Quetzaltenango, TRAMA’s tienda sells textiles made by more than 400 indigenous women of Guatemala. The products include standard weaving fare—scarves, purses, blankets—yet their individual appearances represent the unique patterns and designs of Mayan communities throughout 6 departments of Guatemala.

Established in 1988 under a different name, TRAMA began with a Belgian development worker and 200 Mayan women from villages most affected by political violence with the goal of earning money for textile work.

In the 1980s the Guatemalan military waged a counterinsurgency war that especially targeted the country´s indigenous population. In a scorched-earth campaign between 1981 and 1983, the military killed or disappeared 75,000 people and destroyed more than 440 villages.

In Guatemala, two percent of the people own 65-70 percent of the arable land. From the 1960s through 1980s, agricultural credit and rural sector funds went toward large and medium-sized farmers to the exclusion of Mayans who constitute the vast majority of the rural population.

During the war, widowhood, displacement, and destruction of croplands exacerbated the already marginal economic situation of Mayan women, and the peace accords of 1996 failed to resolve these economic issues. About half of the women who participate in TRAMA are widows. 

"El precio que las mujeres dicen es el precio que pagamos."

TRAMA calls its textiles ¨fair trade.¨ According to Amparo and Oralia, who serve as TRAMA´s president and vice president, this means the organization pays the prices for the goods that the weavers set.

They said that the bargaining that vendors face in the markets and the mark-ups earned by intermediary merchants are not fair trade.

Amparo considered it valuable to pay women directly because then the income goes ¨in her purse¨ and the women can use it on their children, rather than depending on men for money.

Independence is also important for TRAMA´s business management. The association welcomes volunteer support through translation and publicity. In the mid-1990s, however, the weavers decided that the Guatemalan women themselves should run the store. Since Amparo lives in a pueblo in the same department as Quetzaltenango, she came to work at the tienda at that time. Oralia joined her two years later.

"Somos socias."

¨We are associates,¨ Oralia says, indicating that the weavers, not outsiders, decide how to run the business.

Each of the 17 weaving groups in TRAMA selects two representatives to serve in the general assembly.

The representatives must be able to speak and read Spanish to allow communication among all the members, who speak a variety of Mayan languages.

These women bring the products to TRAMA and report organizational updates to their local groups. They also elect the seven-member executive board, which rotates every two years.

Despite its autonomous management, TRAMA´s success depends on purchases made by foreigners who frequent Xela’s numerous language schools. The funding that supported TRAMA´s early history has dried up as the armed conflict becomes less recent and therefore less urgent in the eyes of the international community.

More international partners are one goal for the association, but their primary concern continues to be increasing store traffic and product sales.

In the words of Oralia, “A better life is one where there is more work.”

Pictured above: Amparo, TRAMA president

Find out about back-strap weaving classes at TRAMA's weaving school and store in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

TRAMA Groups by Region

• Solola: 9
• Huehuetenango: 2
• Quiche: 3
• Quetzaltenango: 1
• Sacatepequez: 2

KaraDan Newhouse is a wandering weaver and rogue anthropologist exploring life and textiles in Central America. At the loom she most enjoys weaving inkle belts using hemp yarn.