Strengthening the local fabric
Despite the circumstances, it is necessary to continue growing, even if there is fear, between weaving and banners of protest
Continue reading »Category Archives: "Meet the artisans"
A Story of Hard Work and Resilience
We want to introduce everyone to Santa Guachiac, the leader of the Pacutamá weaving cooperative and Board Member of our organization, Yabal Guatemala. Hear from her in her own words: “Since I was a child, my mother, and my great grandmother, they know how to weave on the backstrap loom, That is their job, and
Continue reading »Celebrating World Fair Trade Day!
This past May 14 we commemorated World Fair Trade Day. This was a good moment to reflect on how Yabal is part of this World movement, promoting justice in trading partnerships between producers and consumers with a focus on environmental sustainability. We had the chance to celebrate with women from Chuicutáma, part of the Yabal
Continue reading »New Eyes, New Points
At the beginning of a recent needle-point workshop in the Pacutama community last month, we asked the women why the older members weren’t there.«They have bad eyesight so they figured they wouldn’t come to a workshop on needle point embroidery» to which we replied, «No, tell them to come! We have reading glasses for them!»
Continue reading »Yabal gone Wild (at the amusement park)
To celebrate our work together in 2019 Yabal took our 41 backstrap loom weavers to the Xetulul amusement park, in Retalhuleu, Guatemala. The park is a major tourist destination about 2 hours from their community and is similar to Disney Land. Tourists from all over Central America travel to Guatemala just to visit this the
Continue reading »mmm mmm good!
As part of this year’s oyster mushroom cultivation program with Yabal’s women weavers in Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, Yabal offered a cooking workshop to give the women new ideas of how to incorporate this nutritious and delicious food into their daily diet. Oyster mushrooms are high in protein, iron, zinc, potassium, folic acid, B vitamins, vitamin
Continue reading »Our Mayan Textiles
By Isabel Coxaj Boj We invited our colleague, Isabel Coxaj Boj, to contribute to the blog today to share more about the deep spiritual symbolism in traditional Mayan textiles and clothes. Isabel is a backstrap-loom weaving teacher, textile-lover, and Yabal’s Store Coordinator in the Yabal shop in Xela, Guatemala. The Maya are recognized for their
Continue reading »Surrounded by Water, Dying of Thirst
above photo credit: Caroline Lindsell This year, Yabal began a new relationship with the artisan cooperative in Chichicastenango, called Utz Batz. They are a group of 10-15 women weavers that have worked together since 2008 as a fair trade artisan cooperative in order to create jobs for themselves. The town of Chichicastenango is famous with
Continue reading »Who is Yabal Guatemala?
While many know Yabal as an ethical fashion brand, what they do not know is that we partner with the Guatemalan non-profit, Yabal Guatemala to realize social programs in rural artisan communities. 80% of the Board of Directors is made up of women leaders from our artisan communities. Yabal Guatemala promotes the empowerment of indigenous
Continue reading »A day off
As women we never have a break, we are always working. Whereas the men go to work and then come home to relax, women are working from sunrise to sunset. Washing, cooking, collecting firewood, taking care of the children, taking care of the garden, the chickens, preparing the food for tomorrow. And in between those
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