Empowering Mayan women through ancient textiles

It was an exciting year for NGO Impacto, full of activities, meetings and many new projects. Here are the top 13 moments of 2015:

1- Encounters between artisans in Chiapas and Oaxaca
With the aim of stimulating learning and motivation among artisans working with Impacto Textil and on other textile projects in the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, this year we had two important exchanges organized in collaboration with the Design Center of Oaxaca and coordinated by the Impacto Textil team.
San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, was the first meeting point for sharing a wide range of knowledge about Mexico’s textile industry. Over six days, women artisans from various communities in the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas shared their stories and creations, demonstrated thousand-year-old techniques using the backstrap loom and pedal, and showed their delicate handling of silk and hand embroidery. They enriched their knowledge by working on creative projects with designers from San Cristobal such as: Margarita Cantu from Omorika, Claudia Muñoz of Chamuchic, Karla Perez from Malacate textile workshop experimentation, Xunka Hernandéz from Mujeres sembrando la Vida, Claire of Lacompré and by the Design Center of Oaxaca (CDO), Mayra.

The second exchange took place a few months later in the city of Oaxaca.
The artisans were accompanied by representatives from textile projects that originated in Chiapas, such as: Corazón Artesanal, Malacate Workshop Experimentation Textile, Chamuchic and Leon XIII Foundation. They attended various workshops, plus cultural and recreational exchanges.
During their visit to Oaxaca, the artisans visited the Textile Museum of Oaxaca, the Binomials Creative Tunmuk exhibition in San Pablo Cultural Center, and textile projects Mariana Grapain Etnodiseño, Miku Meko The Atelier, The trunks of Juana Cata and Bii Dau Zapotec textile art.
In addition to finding out about traditional Oaxacan textiles, the artisans also visited textile projects designers who mix Oaxacan tradition with modern textiles, including appreciating the diversity of local materials (silk, cotton, wool) and maintaining ancestral techniques such as dyeing fabrics using natural elements such as indigo, cochineal, snail, flowers, etc.

2- Second showing of ‘El arte del jaspe y el rebozo
This event was held within the framework of the exhibition El Rebozo: Made in Mexico. We were very enthusiastic to participate in two activities during the event. For the first activity, we gave a talk about value chains with artisans participating. The second activity involved the installation of a photobooth as part of #ViernesTradicional initiative, which uses social networks to promote traditional clothing and accessories handcrafted in Mexico, launched by Impacto in 2014. We talked about promoting rebozo use in everyday dress, showing its versatility and how it enhances the beauty and uniqueness of each piece.
One of the main organizers of the event was Dr. Martha Turok, an expert on the subject of crafts, who greatly enjoyed the two activities we held.

3- Collaboration Casa Lum Hotel- Impacto
In 2015, Casa Lum Boutique Hotel, Impacto and communities of women artisans from across Chiapas -Aldama, San Juan Cancuc, San Juan Chamula and Zinacantan -worked together to design and create a unique collection of textiles for the rooms in Casa Lum, located in San Cristobal de Las Casas.
The pieces are fair trade and were designed through a collaborative process where artisans visited the hotel and listened to the needs and preferences of customers, creating a textile collection that combines the traditions and iconographic elements of each community with the color palette and style of Casa Lum.
It was an enriching experience for the artisans, and for the Impacto Textil team, as it worked in a way that was both respectful and collaborative with the hotel owners.
If you are visiting San Cristobal, don´t miss the opportunity to see the beautiful work of Mayan artisan women at the Casa Lum Boutique Hotel and perhaps acquire a unique piece to decorate your own home. Visit http://casalum.com/ orhttps://www.facebook.com/HotelCasaLum

4- Global Giving Campaign
Last year, for the first time ever, we launched a crowdfunding campaign for Impacto textil on Global Giving- the first and largest global crowdfunding community for non-profit organizations. We were very pleased to surpass our fundraising target, thanks to all the generous donations we received. We got access to Global Giving thanks to our collaboration with Chime for change - a community that works globally focusing on promoting health, education and justice for children, youth and women.

5- Impacto Moringa
The most recent addition to our organization, Impacto Moringa, recently received a donation from Foundation UP, which will go towards a collaborative social project between Impacto and Kukua to benefit women in Oaxaca. Kukua is a social enterprise that creates and sells healthy products to generate additional income, improve nutrition and reforest communities using moringa tree.

6- Mayan artisans from Impacto Textil travel to New York
For the first time ever, we supported and accompanied two Mayan artisans from Zinacantán, Chiapas, to participate in the unique and colorful exhibition Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life in the New York Botanical Garden.
For two weeks, Juana Hernandez and Yolanda Hernandez from the group Mujeres Sembrando la Vida, both enthusiastic and proud of their culture, shared their knowledge of the backstrap loom and embroidered with visitors at the exhibition, making daily demonstrations. They received very positive feedback on their work and had the chance to meet new customers and people interested in the textile tradition of their community.
The opening ceremony and press conference was attended by curators of the exhibition, staff from the Mexican consulate in New York, Mexican artists and local press. Claudia Muñoz, director for Impacto Textil at that time, delivered a speech and shared the work of the textile handicraft sector and artisans of Los Altos de Chiapas with the audience.

7- First International Creative Cities in America for Craft and Folk Art
Impacto joined other organizations to form the Creative City Committee of San Cristobal de Las Casas and together with CONECULTA and the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas the First International Meeting of Creative Cities of America was organized by the Craft and Folk Art. At the same time, other cities participating included Paducah (EU), Nassau (Bahamas), Popayan (Colombia), Quito (Ecuador) and Oaxaca (Mexico). We were also joined by Dr. Nuria Sanz, Director General of UNESCO Mexico, who encouraged attendees to apply for the candidacy of the city because of its enormous cultural potential it has.

For three days, they held visits, presentations and workshops to explain in more depth the proposal of the candidacy of San Cristobal de Las Casas as Creative City for Craft and Folk Art by UNESCO. Previous creative proposals that had been selected and other candidate cities of the Americas participated in the meeting.
During the meeting, our CEO Adriana Aguerrebere and the then director of Impacto textil, Claudia Muñoz, took part and shared their experience of Impacto and Impacto Textil, and our efforts to improve production systems, quality and marketing of textile crafts communities in Los Altos de Chiapas. The meeting was held in various venues: the Centro de Textiles del Mundo Maya, the Workshop School of Arts and Crafts in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Teaching House City and the offices of Impacto. There was also a visit to the Na Bolom museum, a community of knitters in Aldama and a tasting in the neighborhood of Cuxtitali where we encountered the work of the Jolom Mayaetik cooperative.

8- Nomination of San Cristobal de Las Casas as Creative City in Craft and Folk Art UNESCO
With great joy and great expectations we awaited the nomination of the city of San Cristobal, as Creative City Craft and Folk Art in UNESCO. During a press conference to make the announcement, the mayor and Honorary President of the Committee Marco Cancino made the local official announcement at the press conference and enthusiastically invited the general public of San Cristobal to join this important revival and appreciation of crafts and folk arts of the city. 

At Impacto we’re interested in global initiatives that generate development and welfare, particularly in Chiapas and Oaxaca, which are two of the poorest states in Mexico. That's why for the past two years we actively participated in all efforts to get the nomination recently received from UNESCO in San Cristobal de Las Casas in the category of Creative City Craft and Folk Art, made possible through the partnership with San Cristobal Creative City, of which our CEO, Adriana Aguerrebere was recently named operative president.

9- Farewell and welcome
In this past year, we said goodbye to Claudia Muñoz, our beloved director of Impact Textil, who had to leave this post for personal reasons. Clau, now acting as counselor of Impacto, We’d like to give a big thank you to Claudia, now acting as counsellor to Impacto, for the wonderful work you have done for Impacto and, most importantly, the artisans.
Alejandra Villegas is the new Director of Impacto Textil. Thanks to her experience, expertise, knowledge and passion for the craft textile world, she has enriched and contributed greatly both to the team in the office, and design work and training with the women artisans we currently collaborate with.

10- Welcome to craftswomen from Mitontic
In 2015 we welcomed the sixth group of artisans to collaborate with Impacto, to receive training at Impacto textil.
Mitontic is very close to Chenalhó and is among the 9 most marginalized municipalities in Los Altos de Chiapas; despite the efforts of women artisans to improve their family finances by selling handicrafts, textile revenue is low and sales are not enough to cover their costs or increase their household income; for this reason, Impacto offered them the opportunity to participate in our training program to improve their technical skills.
Mitontic has meant great challenges for our organization because of their level of marginalization and poverty. The artisans hope that more women will join us and together we can achieve real empowerment and improve the quality of life in the short and long term.

11- Participation in Design Week, Mexico City
In 2015, Chiapas state was a special guest at Mexico Design Week 2015, where we were invited to hold a MASDEDOS bazar pop-up store, a platform of contemporary textile projects working collaboratively.
Participants explored not only possibilities and tangible proposals for the product design; but they also learned about work processes, symbolism, craft techniques and application of design as an agent of change in the reality of the Chiapas artisans. As a result of how these processes work, they have generated projects influenced by the context in which they develop- they have generated ethical and collaborative practices with high symbolic and cultural value.
Impacto Textil and nine other projects presented their work at the MASDEDOS pop-up store as part of Design Week Mexico 2015 in the Urban Territory space.
In collaboration with several groups, new textile collections were presented, including a new collection of cushions for the home with the San Juan Cancuc group, collars and blouses from Aldama, women’s travel bags from Huixtán, Bochil blouses and Santiago del pinewood accessories for men. Everything was beautifully presented and successfully sold within the pop up store # DWM15.
On one of the days of the event, director of Impacto textil, Alejandra Villegas, gave a conference titled, Design Artisan Value Chain, at the Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura installations. The conference focussed on thinking about design as a way of promoting social development, achieving an increase in the efficiency of processes and improved products developed from the craft. At the end Ale summed up by saying: "At Impacto textil, thinking about design helps us generate solutions for work processes."

12- Documentary- The True Cost.
Thanks to the involvement of Impacto Textil in Fashion Revolution Mexico, Chiapas premiered the documentary The True Cost at Kinoki in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. The screening was attended by important representatives of the sector such as Carmen Rion, Marua Pinto from Leon XIII foundatio and Claire and Roxanna Coello from Lacmporé Maddalena Forcella, among others. There is no doubt that the film left a deep impression on the audience, with many taking part in the discussion following the screening, which allowed us to have an interesting exchange of ideas with participants on the principles of sustainable fashion, awareness of consumers and responsible consumption at all levels of fashion.

13- Impacto film club
Last year, we opened the doors of our office twice to the general public, showing screenings as part of Impacto film club. We held the events to raise funds for Impacto, so that we can continue empowering women artisans in Los Altos de Chiapas through participatory workshops, linking with designers and bringing their products to conscious consumers.
Impacto film club was and has been a place where fans of textiles, Mexican culture and indigenous cultures can have a good time, meet new people and share experiences and views while contributing to the empowerment of women artisans in indigenous communities of Los Altos de Chiapas.

Thank you to everyone involved in making 2015 an excellent year! Impacto will continue to work hard to make 2016 even better, as we to continue to meet and climb towards our goals as an organization, always encouraging and participating in innovative proposals to help do our bit to reduce the inequality gap that exists among the vulnerable population of Chiapas and Oaxaca now.