Threads that Teach: My Experience Learning to Weave at the Women’s Center

Written by Kamron Legred

It has been just more than four months since I have arrived at the San Lucas Mission as a Long-Term Volunteer. I have spent much of my spare time here working through the application process of Art Education graduate school programs. As I’ve worked through application essays, I’ve found myself continuing to write about the inspiring art forms of San Lucas, specifically the art of weaving that I’ve learned at the Women’s Center. These experiences have assisted my understanding of the role of art in education, community, and artistic identity.

Since living here in San Lucas, I have recognized that art is far more than just a creative process. Art lives as a language of history, survival and necessity here. Experiencing and participating in Guatemalan art forms has become one of the most effective ways I have learned about the culture. As I walk to the Mission building every morning, I read the messages spread across street murals. When I attend traditional backstrap weaving classes and the Women’s Center, I understand the vitality of textiles with every thread I pass through. Each experience has brought me to understand how creativity is intertwined with daily life and cultural memory.

One of the most significant and memorable parts of my experience here has been attending the weekly weaving classes at the Mission’s Women’s Center. Every week I have the inspiring opportunity to sit alongside local women and practice an art form that has such profound roots in Mayan culture, survival, and expression. I get tiny glimpses into Mayan artistry and womanhood as I complete each row, watching fabric form right before my eyes. This generational practice with its designs, colors, and woven symbols holds a meaningful variety of uses and allows for identity expression for women across the community.

The Mission’s Women’s Center, which recently celebrated its 15 year anniversary, holds an opportunity for women around the communities of San Lucas to come together and share their personal experiences and learn a trade as a way to make money. Women of any community around San Lucas Tolimán regardless of age, are welcome to attend weaving, sewing, and cooking classes free of charge. In a town where many women are traditionally limited to the role of homemaker, these classes offer something more transformative than just the actual skill-building. Through learning to make and sell traditional goods, these women unlock a door to financial independence for themselves and their families. The Mission’s Women’s Center redirects the understanding of what is normalized as “women’s work” into sources of income, identity, pride, and power. That being said, the art of weaving and sewing extends its traditional significance into a broader possibility for the women of San Lucas Tolimán.

By attending the weekly weaving classes, I quickly came to realize how demanding of patience, precision, and focus this art form requires. My instructor Susana, who constantly demonstrates her patience and love for weaving, always provides assistance without hesitation. Among the class sits young mothers, some grandmothers, and me, a 23 year old American man, who are all working to achieve and appreciate the art of backstrap weaving. Oftentimes, the children of the women alongside me in the class would volunteer themselves to be my little assistants during the starting processes of counting threads and spinning it on spiles. Easily, I got distracted by these kids running around with their toys and giggling to themselves as they called me by my Guatemalan nickname, Camarón (the Spanish word for ‘shrimp’ that I quickly adopted from the struggle of the English pronunciation of my name). Though I found joy and laughter in these distracting interactions, I quickly came to realize the reality of being a woman and mother. I saw the duty of juggling children at home while at the same time experiencing difficulties in financial maintenance of a family and how important having a large open space like the Women’s Center is. As I sit in class each week, I am able to listen to conversations among the women and hear how they share their stories, laugh together, and support one another as they build connections with themselves as well as with this precious traditional artistry.

I think that a highly important part of traveling here to the Mission as a visitor is to be a learner rather than a helper. When visitors come expecting to help, they often imagine their time will be spent carrying materials at construction sites, providing medical care, or delivering charity bags to those out in the communities. All of these are vital parts of the purpose of a trip to the Mission but the deeper part of being here is to understand San Lucas’s culture, histories, and people. Attending these weaving classes and building relationships at the Women’s Center, I have come to see how much can be learned simply by observing and participating in a form of labor and craft that helps to define the community.

It has been a realization to me that the Mission’s programs do not exist just because outsiders arrived here to “fix” things, it’s because of the local people who possess the leadership and creativity to shape the future for themselves and others.

Learning about the arts here in San Lucas has opened my eyes to how this beautiful town functions as a community maintaining their sense of identity. Through the patterns, designs, and structure of the weaving here lies a community wide design style called “loy.” The Loy style is specific to the San Lucas community and holds profound roots from ancient Mayan history and traditions. The Loy style bridges the community to centuries of tradition, allowing for the preservation and honor of San Lucas Tolimán’s Mayan identity. As I sit among these women each week, I am shown how this type of art is not just about producing something beautiful but rather about sustaining the practice, uplifting individuals, and imagining futures that may have been unimaginable. This dedication to making is what initially drew me into pursuing a career within the arts.

As I take steps forward into new phases in my life by applying to graduate school in Art Education, I continue to pull inspiration from my weaving experiences and the generous hands who share the practice with me. Art is deeply tied to identity as it needs nurturing and protection moving forward to new generations. This is what I am reminded of each day that I enter my workspace with Susana and the other women at the Women’s Center. Just as each woven piece of fabric starts with a single loop of a thread, this experience is a thin but core thread to the fabric I create on my way to becoming an educator.

 

To learn more about the becoming a Long-Term Volunteer, click here.