Meet the Artisans

Mayan Connection works with traditional Mayan artisans in the villages surrounding Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. A Women's Beading Collective hand makes jewelry, and a family produces our textile products.

Currently, the women's beading collective consists of seven women, most of them supporting their children as single mothers. By being part of the collective, the women are able to earn living wages while working from their homes. This allows them to care for their children and go by their daily lives, while doing respectable work. Once a week, the women meet to  discuss the topics at hand and share their work. At these meetings they go over inventory of materials, receive payments, and make plans in order to proceed. This kind of interaction allows the women to gain knowledge on how to organize and work together as an efficient & collaborative collective.

Some of the women of the collective live in the rural mountainous areas around Lake Atitlan and others live in the lakeside town of San Pedro La Laguna. The women range in ages from 24 to 78, bringing the diversity of their life experiences into their work.

The production of our bags is facilitated by Laura and Francisco Tiriquiz Cortez. The traditional textiles used to make the bags come from recycled fabrics and huipiles (indigenous Mayan blouses). The colors and patterns in these materials represent Mayan villages from all over Guatemala. By sewing together these diverse fabrics, the finished bags illustrate the complexity and vastness of the Mayan culture.