Monday, June 16, 2008

Voice from the Field: Juana Sisimite

Juana Sisimite is an artisan instructor working with Coffee Kids’ partner Association for Sustainable Development of Paraxaj (ADESPA) on their technical work training program. Sisimite is teaching 26 women from the community of Paraxaj how to create ‘fajas’ or decorated belts that women in the region use as part of their traditional dress. This artisan project is part of ADESPA’s larger goal to create economic options in the coffee-farming community of Paraxaj.

“I learned this work watching other women who dedicated themselves to this activity in the community of Patzicia and since the work appealed to me, I decided I wanted to learn. In the beginning it was hard because no one was teaching me and so the only way to learn was to put the needle in the beads and begin with a line that took me almost a week. I was the first in my family to learn this and afterward I taught my sisters, now we all do this work.

“Now we are teaching all of these women. I told them to take advantage o the opportunity to learn because you can make money in this business. We deliver our products to three places, and during the festival season they sell very well. The type of embroidery varies depending on the community, each place has its own colors. For example, in some places the colors of red are used a lot and they don’t use white, but this changes according to town and traditional dress.

“The ‘fajas’ we make can be sold at an average price of Q125 ($17); and to the public in the stores they sell for about Q150 ($20). The materials to do this work are expensive and we buy them in the town of Patcizia which is about a half-hour away.

“I am single , but when I have my children, I’m going to teach them everything because my mother liked to work a lot and she made many things. She didn’t know how to do this work, but we learned other things with her such as weaving and embroidery for other types of clothes.”