Stop violence against indigenous women in Mexico

Years ago I began my journey with Una mano para Oaxaca, when I started, we had a clear objective which was to give strength to the women of the Istmo de Tehuantepec, and we achieved it through traditional trades and crafts. We created the first artisan cooperative incubator, called “El semillero cooperativista”, where the collective idea of selling together emerged, El semillero was a space for ideas, companionship, rescue and accompaniment. When the idea of acting as a collective arose, UMPO already had an emerging brand called Manos de Sol, which had been created to help place handicrafts of many people, but it was an informal brand that was inactive, so El semillero collectives decided to adopt it and give it life. Some of these people had learned crafts and arts at the UMPO traditional crafts school, and they embraced the brand with much love, now this brand is registered and they already have a charter.

When we were about to meet for a second meeting of cooperatives, the pandemic began, which took us almost three years. We had to stop activities several times, everything was delayed. But very creative ways emerged to reactivate our region, which had already been hit by the earthquakes, UMPO managed to use strategies so that the women who had managed to reactivate would not stop. Collective work is a way of working in the face of adversity and one of the goals is to find ways to contribute to the community, for example, to give workshops to the community so that the crafts will last. The craft women's collectives also want to add more craftswomen so that they can sell together and shelter each other. The women we accompany are participating in programs, organizing markets and activities that show other artisans that they can also be resilient in this way.

Accompanying this program has been an honor, where I recognize many stories that fill me with joy, stories of financial independence, cultural preservation and rekindling the love for the roots of our communities. 

The collective that has been created is also concerned about their context, they are currently collecting for their brothers and sisters in Guerrero. Everything that has been achieved has given them the capacity for self-management, it has taught them to move, not to wait, to do it by themselves. This has led them to be noticed.

The collective that has been created is also concerned about their context, they are currently collecting for their brothers and sisters in Guerrero. Everything that has been achieved has given them the capacity for self-management, it has taught them to move, not to wait, to do it by themselves. That brings them to look at them. 

That is why we want this program to be reactivated in all its breadth, we dream of digital commerce, exportation. There are many craftswomen who approach us and ask for guidance to create more collective spaces. We want everything that makes us proud to move to other places, we live the benefits of learning, dreaming and teaching collectively. This has been a work of more than three years and we know it has much more to give. Imagine and dream that the artisan collectives can be strengthened from the depths, it will not be a new path, but a renewed path. Strengthening artisan guardians of crafts not only has immediate benefits for women that allow them to reduce the violence to which they are exposed in their communities, but also benefits the entire community as a whole, from their economy to their soul life. The path that was taken to consolidate Manos de Sol is the right one. Thank you for making this possible, we know that we are going together for more opportunities to build bridges of life.

With gratitude 

Rosario 

Recently we told you that we finally managed to open the official store of “Manos de Sol” handicrafts. Since 2018 we have accompanied training in traditional crafts for women who wanted to increase their income and from those training, a group of outstanding women started ventures and now several of them have organized to create the collective brand “Manos de Sol”. We are celebrating that this has borne considerable fruit among our community, we continue to look for ways to support Manos de Sol and find out the ways we can improve. 

These last few months have been great. On the one hand we learned a lot with all the marketing events we have been invited to, and we organized training to improve the quality of the products and processes, manage inventories and customer service. One of our proudest achievements is that the collective is now formally constituted as a cooperative, which is a big step and we want to thank you for promoting it! Little by little we are betting more and more on the development of the artisans so that they have more autonomy. 

What I want to tell you is that as an organization, we feel very proud because the craftswomen who were once trained in our traditional trades school are now teaching new women. As their sales increase, they need more help and they invite more women from the communities, they learn the trade and then the apprentices help collectives to produce. Soon we will have many native women, improving the community economy through the preservation of local crafts and knowledge.

Getting into the world of innovation as artisans has been fascinating, for example, our colleagues who work with palm now want to learn about natural dyes, those who work with food are questioning the information they should provide to consumers or those who work with leather, are focused on reducing waste and creating products that really have a utility. We have created alliances so that other state collectives make us part of their tours in Oaxaca and so we receive people from all over the world in Manos de Sol. After 5 years of work, all this makes our hearts vibrate and we can say: "YES, this is the good way, we are making it". 

The challenges that follow are to have more technical assistance, more alliances, more women learning and more teaching. We still have a long way to go but we do not lose pace or hope. Bicaalú'tu laabe, xquixhe pe lii ti nuulu ne ládu' which means you put your hope in, thank you for being with us. 

Thank you for listening to us and accompanying us, these steps are possible because you have joined this project.  

Best regards, 

Alejandra Rosado