Empowering Mayan women through ancient textiles

Juana Victoria Hernández was born in San Juan Cancuc, Chiapas; she is 27 years old, married and has a 1 year-old child. After graduating from high school she started working as a coordinator in Cancuc´s DIF (Desarrollo Integral de la Familia or Families Integral Development agency), where she was the assistant to the First Lady at the Municipal level.

While she was working at DIF, she was planning on having a handicrafts shop to sell her products, just as her mother had done before.

When her contract in the municipality ended, Juana started manufacturing her first textiles for the shop, but it was not easy because in her community´s market items were sold at a low price and selling in other markets was hard due to the low investments she had available. That is when she heard about Impacto Textil.

Juana says that before Impacto Textil: "We did not know how to measure, or manufacture different sizes. We knew what our mothers taught us in regards to the traditional huipil, men suits, and children clothes. When we started with the workshops we learned how to measure, worked with various sizes, and created new forms and designs.

At the beginning we were 15 women from the community, today we are many groups, in total 85 artisans. The first thing we learned was to measure, which allowed us to manufacture with more quality; with Impacto we understood the importance of manufacturing high quality clothes. We had also learned to use marks, and now I am learning to design with patterns for blouses and skirts. We are also learning a lot regarding colors. Honestly I believe that our product line is improving and definitely we already started a journey for great quality and design.

After improving our product line, we have been able to achieve direct sales, some through Impacto Textil. This gives us the opportunity to help our families and communities. We can also say that the artisans group is more empowered and collaborative, women now participate more in the community shop.

We have been making improvements in our crafts workshop; we did not have chairs or tables and now the group can suggest changes/improvements to the store." 

When we asked Juana about her plans for the future, she said: “my plan for the future is to have a store with our own brand, so that we can support our homes even more. I want to keep teaching the textile craft (art) to future generations.

Juana is only one of the 85 women with whom Impacto through its Textile Program collaborates in a daily basis. Juana is the leader in her group; she does not only designs, weaves and brocades, she also sells and her enthusiasm has helped other women in their self-esteem, leadership and informal enterprises as to improve their livelihoods.

Since our last report, we now have started to work with three new groups in workshops related to product design and color. Besides that, we have given four workshops in two different communities: Santiago del Pinar and Huixtán.

Through 4 modules the artisans learn: financing systems, product presentation and packaging, product design and the use of color. 

Also we have implemented the sewing workshop which helps to strengthen the capacities of women as well as improving of the product.

Little by little we are moving forward, all these steps are achieved with the help of all those who collaborate with us: designers, the team at Impacto Textil, and the artisan women, among many others. We thank you for being part of this challenge, to reduce economic and social inequalities in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico.