Based in Yucatan, Taller Maya creates beautiful artesanias and promotes development in a place in Mexico known for its history of traditional craftsmanship and Mayan techniques. In their own words:
"Despite gender roles in her community, Doña Landy forged ahead even when facing financial difficulties. Yet she provided for her family through the crafts she was making at the workshop."
"We're a project borne from the work of Fundación Haciendas del Mundo Maya, and we work with about 200 Maya artisans in the Yucatan peninsula. Our mission is to promote the development of Maya communities to ensure a better quality of life for them, as well as to foster opportunities for education, health and social well being.
"At first it wasn't easy getting the artisans to trust our project, especially since according to Maya customs it's not acceptable for women to work in handcrafts. Also, they weren't used to work as a team, so we developed different training workshops for them.
"Since then we have been presenting different projects to benefit the Maya communities with a view to creating jobs for them in handcraft workshops. These include weaving on pedal looms and filigree jewelry.
"Handcrafts are an intrinsic part of everyday life for the Maya people, so this project aims at rescuing and promoting the traditional arts and crafts of the Yucatan peninsula."
A beautiful piece from this taller is featured in our store here:
"Throughout these years we've been fortunate to overcome the challenges we have encountered, and thanks to our hard work we can tell the quality of life of these women artisans has improved. And not only that, they have garnered respect and recognition through the work they do.
"We are very proud of Doña Landy, whose story is amongst the ones that has moved us the most. Despite gender roles in her community, Doña Landy forged ahead even when facing financial difficulties. Yet she provided for her family through the crafts she was making at the workshop. Thanks to her, other women have found a way to get their husbands involved, and now they are working at the workshop too.
"Another reason for feeling proud of our achievements is the international recognition of our mission and hard work. In 2007 we received the To Do! Award at the World Tourism Fair in Berlin for our efforts in social responsibility through Fundación Haciendas del Mundo Maya, and in 2009 we received Condé Nast's World Savers Award for our social and environmental commitment, and our contributions to the relief of poverty."
Here is a short video from that Condé Nast's event:
THE EXCERPT ABOVE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN NOVICA.COM.