Guatemala features some of the most beautiful fabrics in the world (as I was convincingly explained by a fabric professional (K...)). Roaming the thousands of fabric markets, fabric museums, clothes stands and simply the streets an idea was born: Teaching how to weave these wonderful pieces of art to the family!
Kate’s account:
Backstrap weaving is the traditional form of weaving which has been used by women in Guatemala since the time of the ancient mayas (large pedal looms were only introduced by the spanish). Fabrics woven on backstrap looms are used for making the women’s traditional shirts or "huipiles" (each village has its own style of huipil which are very distinctive and easily recognized, a bit like clan tartans in scotland), as well as fabirc for trousers and skirts and the general purpose shawls which can be used for anything from babycarriers to sun shades. These fabrics are an integral expression of todays’ Mayan culture in Guatemala when I read in the guidebook that in Antigua there was the possibility to do weaving courses in various language schools, I thought that it would be a great opportunity for us to have a closer contact with that culture.
We ended up finding our teacher in the market. Ofelia Lopez has a small stand in the Mercado de Artesanias, where she sells weavings made by herself, he mother and her daughters. Her husband died in a road accident 7 years ago and she supports the family entirely from her weaving. We noticed he stand and started talking to her about weaving. She was very opend and friendly and when I mentioned that I wanted to learn weaving with the girls we quickly worked out a plan to do classes in her house in the nearby mayan village of San Antonio Aguas Calientes. San Antonio famous in Guatemala for the fineness of its weaving. Ofelia, like most of the inhabitants is a Kachquikel Maya and speaks Kachqikel with her family.
The next week saw the girls and I (Stefan could not be tempted!) heading off on one Guatemala’s famous brightly painted ex-amercian-school-bus buses. The bus trip in itself was an adventure, from the vendors who streamed through the bus while we were waiting to leave, to the crush of other passengers (we were sitting 4 to a seat) and the view out of the window). The bus ride to San Antonio only takes 25 minutes and Ofelia was waiting for as she had promised. A short walk through the very untouristy streets took us to her lovely house : more a garden, with beautiful flowers and tress, with three simple bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen built aroung the edge of it. Ofelia’s mother and two of her daughters were there and welcomed us with great warmth and friendliness. Ofelia is a very patient teacher who understands all the joys and frustrations for children learning weaving (in the end only the girls did weaving as Ofelia felt that it would be difficult to have 4 beginners at once) having been through it all with her own and has great sense of humour in the face of lost tempers. We visited the family in San Antonio several more times and they came to lunch with us in our camper.
By the end of our classes
Ofelia felt like a real friend
and the girls had become
confiednt weavers. They
have carried on with thei
r weaving since we have
left Guatemala and are
very proud of their work.
Backstrap weaving is the traditional form of weaving which has been used by women in Guatemala since the time of the ancient mayas (large pedal looms were only introduced by the spanish). Fabrics woven on backstrap looms are used for making the women’s traditional shirts or "huipiles" (each village has its own style of huipil which are very distinctive and easily recognized, a bit like clan tartans in scotland), as well as fabirc for trousers and skirts and the general purpose shawls which can be used for anything from babycarriers to sun shades. These fabrics are an integral expression of todays’ Mayan culture in Guatemala when I read in the guidebook that in Antigua there was the possibility to do weaving courses in various language schools, I thought that it would be a great opportunity for us to have a closer contact with that culture.
We ended up finding our teacher in the market. Ofelia Lopez has a small stand in the Mercado de Artesanias, where she sells weavings made by herself, he mother and her daughters. Her husband died in a road accident 7 years ago and she supports the family entirely from her weaving. We noticed he stand and started talking to her about weaving. She was very opend and friendly and when I mentioned that I wanted to learn weaving with the girls we quickly worked out a plan to do classes in her house in the nearby mayan village of San Antonio Aguas Calientes. San Antonio famous in Guatemala for the fineness of its weaving. Ofelia, like most of the inhabitants is a Kachquikel Maya and speaks Kachqikel with her family.
The next week saw the girls and I (Stefan could not be tempted!) heading off on one Guatemala’s famous brightly painted ex-amercian-school-bus buses. The bus trip in itself was an adventure, from the vendors who streamed through the bus while we were waiting to leave, to the crush of other passengers (we were sitting 4 to a seat) and the view out of the window). The bus ride to San Antonio only takes 25 minutes and Ofelia was waiting for as she had promised. A short walk through the very untouristy streets took us to her lovely house : more a garden, with beautiful flowers and tress, with three simple bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen built aroung the edge of it. Ofelia’s mother and two of her daughters were there and welcomed us with great warmth and friendliness. Ofelia is a very patient teacher who understands all the joys and frustrations for children learning weaving (in the end only the girls did weaving as Ofelia felt that it would be difficult to have 4 beginners at once) having been through it all with her own and has great sense of humour in the face of lost tempers. We visited the family in San Antonio several more times and they came to lunch with us in our camper.
By the end of our classes
Ofelia felt like a real friend
and the girls had become
confiednt weavers. They
have carried on with thei
r weaving since we have
left Guatemala and are
very proud of their work.
