In defense of tissue in Guatemala

BY TERESA GONÓN AND MARÍA GUARCHAJ

TRANSLATED BY EMMA PORTER

María Elena Curruchiche is kneeling on a petate in the courtyard of her home in San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala.
She has a mecapal gathered at her waist that hangs from the warp of the cloth tied to the top of the beam of her house. He throws the bobbin with corinth thread from left to right. He finishes off with a blow with the help of a wooden sword so that the crossed thread is tight inside the warp. Curruchiche performs the same action several times quickly, exchanging colors until the desired shade is complete.

“Our weavings and mainly the huipiles complement our being, women like my age, 65 years and older, we only wear huipil we don’t wear blouses, because we don’t feel good,” shares Curruchiche, Kaqchikel weaver.

Spinning history

Weaving in Guatemala is above all an art that condenses the history, culture, economy and spirituality of the native peoples. There are 22 linguistic communities that make up the country, plus the Xinka, Garifuna and Mestizo. Each region and people has its own way of elaborating its clothing, a technique that people have been using for centuries since the ancient Mayan civilization.

“Weaving around the world is a primary technology, which marks the before and after of the people: they invent the warping machine to turn a fabric, in history, it is the action that indicates a civilizing process and Guatemala is no exception,” says Maria Jacinta Xon, Maya K’iche’ anthropologist, through a video call.

“Weaving is humanity’s own way of getting hold of itself and, at the same time, capturing its history,” says Xón. In the communities of Guatemala, they weave textiles, including cortes (similar to skirts), huipiles (related to blouses), perrajes, napkins, jackets (ponchos) and a variety of fabrics that are then transformed. There are also departments where mestizo people live who have stopped using clothing, but continue weaving, as in some areas of Quetzaltenango and Escuintla.

An initiative to protect weavers

The weavers’ movement in Guatemala is made up of 25 weavers’ councils from 25 different municipalities, including the departments of Sacatepéquez, Chimaltenango, Guatemala, Alta Verapaz, Huehuetenango and Quiché. One of the municipalities with the greatest interest and participation has been San Juan Atitán, which is located in the heights of the Cuchumatanes Mountains, in the border department of Huehuetenango.

Their work in defense of ancestral weavings began to take shape in 2014. First they were united by the need to accompany and support each other among weavers due to the various situations they suffer, among them the low pay they receive.

“The profit that intermediaries make from the weavers, by selling the weavings at double the price they pay the weavers, is modern exploitation,” says Milvia Aspuac, representative of the Women’s Association for the Development of Sacatepéquez (Afedes), which works with the weavers’ movement.

“When we realized the need to take our petition to Congress, we organized ourselves, we held assemblies of 600 or even 1,200 weavers,” Aspuac said in an interview with Ojalá. In 2022, the National Movement of Weavers Ru chajixik ri qana’ojbäl, which means “safeguard of our knowledge” in the Kaqchikel language, presented Law Initiative 6136. The initiative proposes the protection of collective intellectual property over the textiles and clothing of Guatemala’s indigenous peoples and communities.

There were several assemblies at the national level, a process that led to much reflection. It arose out of necessity: it is the organized weavers who turn to the Weavers’ movement for support and guidance because they want to join in the defense of the intellectual property of their weavings. The proposal to promote a legal initiative arose from the dialogue among weavers, motivated by the need to protect and preserve textile designs, as well as to recognize the collective knowledge they represent.

Weaver Curruchiche, who is a member of the Weavers’ Movement, explains that the importance of the law lies in protecting the craft and knowledge for future generations. “It would give us the opportunity to stop the usurpation of rights by designers and entrepreneurs,” she says.

Proposal on pause

The bill was presented by members of the Indigenous Peoples Commission, Afedes and the Ru chajixik ri qana’ojbäl weavers’ movement in September 2022, and on February 29, 2024 it was referred to the social development commission of the Congress of the Republic. Since then there has been no further progress.

The initiative contemplates the creation of the National Council of Intellectual Property on textiles and clothing, which requires funds for its operation. “We are seeking dialogue with the Ministry of Finance to analyze where the funds can come from,” says Aspuac. He confirms that they have tried to meet with the Social Development Commission but to date have not been able to do so.

Aspuac assures that pushing this proposal challenges them because “we are women and therefore weavers,” referring to the lack of resources and time to follow up on the proposal. While pushing for the bill to move forward, Afedes continues to accompany the various weavers’ councils, strengthening their advocacy strategy. From Xón’s point of view, before continuing with the process of the initiative, “it is essential to continue evaluating the mechanism for protecting the weavings.

María Guarchaj Carrillo is a K’iche’ Maya, journalist and community communicator.
Teresa Gonón is a K’iche’ Maya from San Cristóbal Totonicapán, and has been working for ten years with women and youth promoting rights based on Maya identity.