Reportage • Teresa Gonón and María Guarchaj • January 16, 2024 • Leer en castellano

María Elena Curruchiche kneels on a straw mat in the courtyard of her home in San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala. A strap stretches from her waist to a cloth tied to a rafter in the roof. She moves quickly, pushing a bobbin spooled with thread from left to right. She punctuates each sideways movement by swinging a wooden staff, ensuring that the horizontal thread is woven tightly across the vertical threads. Curruchiche repeats the action several times, changing colors until she has created the desired pattern.

“Our weavings and huipiles [embroidered traditional shirts] are part of who we are. Women my age, 65 years and older, we only wear huipiles; we don't wear blouses because we don't feel good in them,” says Curruchiche, a Maya Kaqchikel weaver.

Weaving is an art that embodies and communicates the history, culture, economy and spirituality of Indigenous peoples in Guatemala. There are 22 linguistic communities in Guatemala, plus the Xinca, Garifuna and mestizo people. Each region and people has its own way of weaving clothing, using techniques passed down over the centuries from ancient Mayan civilization.

“Weaving technology marks a before and after for people from all over the world: they invent a weave that creates fabric. Throughout history, this has been part of a civilizational process. Guatemala is no exception,” said María Jacinta Xón, a Maya K'iche' anthropologist, in a video interview.

“Humanity expresses itself through weaving, which also captures human history,” said Xón. In Guatemalan communities, people weave cortes [a kind of skirt], huipiles, napkins, jackets (ponchos) and various fabrics that are used for other creations. In departments such as Quetzaltenango and Escuintla, mestizo people—who no longer wear traditional clothing—continue weaving.

An initiative to protect weavers

Guatemala’s weavers’ movement is made up of 25 weavers’ councils from 25 municipalities in departments including Sacatepéquez, Chimaltenango, Guatemala, Alta Verapaz, Huehuetenango and Quiché. The municipality of San Juan Atitán, which sits high in the Los Cuchumatanes mountains in the northern department of Huehuetenango, is among those most engaged in this process.

Weavers began organizing in defense of traditional weaving in 2014. They recognized the need to respond collectively to abuses that they suffer, including low pay. “The profit that middlemen make from weavers by selling their creations at double the price that they pay is modern exploitation,” said Milvia Aspuac, a representative of the Women's Association for the Development of Sacatepéquez (AFEDES), which works with the weavers movement.

“When we realized that we needed to take our petition to Congress, we organized and held meetings of 600 up to 1,200 weavers,” Aspuac told Ojalá.

In 2022, the National Movement of Weavers “Ru chajixik ri qana'ojbäl”, which means “safeguarding our knowledge” in Kaqchikel, introduced Bill 6136. It proposes protecting the collective intellectual property of Guatemala’s Indigenous peoples and communities, specifically their textiles and clothing.

They held several national gatherings, which prompted a lot of reflection. The discussions arose out of necessity: organized weavers turned to the weavers' movement for support and guidance as they sought to defend the intellectual property contained within their weavings.

The proposed law arose out of dialogue among weavers. They understood the need to protect and safeguard the designs in their weavings, while also recognizing that the knowledge that allows for the creation of the weavings is collective.

Curruchiche, who is a member of the National Movement of Weavers, says that the law could be an important way to preserve the craft and weavings for future generations. “It would allow us to stop theft by clothing designers and entrepreneurs,” she said.

Law on pause for lack of funds

Members of congress belonging to the Indigenous Peoples Commission, AFEDES and the Ru chajixik ri qana’ojbäl National Movement of Weavers presented the proposed law in 2022. It was sent to the Social Development Commission in Congress for review on February 29, 2024, but progress has stalled since then.

The bill calls for the creation of a National Council of Intellectual Property for textiles and clothing, but this requires operating funds. “We are trying to dialogue with the Ministry of Finance to figure out where these funds will come from,” said Aspuac. She said that they have tried to meet with the Social Development Commission, but have not yet been able to do so. 

Aspuac says that moving the bill forward is a challenge because “we are women and weavers.” This means that they lack the resources and time necessary to follow up on the proposal. While pushing the bill forward, AFEDES continues supporting various weavers' councils by helping them strengthen their advocacy strategy.

From Xón's point of view, as work on the bill continues, “it is essential to keep finding ways to protect the weavings.”