San Antonio Palopo sits perched on the side of a mountain overlooking the beautiful Lake Atitlan.
Our artisan group in this village is known for the beautiful textiles in shades of blues, greens and purples. The women’s blouses are made of these textiles as well as many of their home textiles.
We have been working with this group for about 2 years and are helping them with more orders so they are able to earn enough money to educate and care for their children. This group lost much in the mudslides during the tropical storm in 2010 — family members, homes, their looms and sewing machines and so much more.
Today’s meeting was spent working on orders to be shipped in a few months. They are such wonderful weavers and are capable of making very unique handcrafts.
We hope to help more in the future with a sewing center or sewing machines and more educational opportunities for their children.
One of the unique accessories that the women in this group wear is the cintas or belts/ bands around their hair and heads.
The hair bands are wrapped around their long hair — into a long ponytail then the long wrapped ponytail is wound around their head and held secure with the ends of the bands. They rarely ever leave their house without their hair put up this way.
Education And More will have some of their unique belts and hair bands available soon in the webstore at our website.
Tags: artisans, fair trade handcrafts, Mayan village, San Antonio Palopo
