In Guatemala our main office and warehouse are in Guatemala City. At that location work our Director, Deborah Chandler, and her assistant/ bookkeeper/ helper in all ways, Julio Cardona.
The heart of Mayan Hands is more spread out. Our remarkable field worker, Teresa Gomez, lives in the highlands and travels, on a regular basis, to the villages where the women live, visiting each group at least once a month. The weavers who work with us speak four different Mayan languages, more than they speak Spanish. Teresa, herself a speaker of Ixil, can communicate well with them in their own languages. We see over and over that much of the success of Mayan Hands is due to the attentiveness of our field worker. We are very definitely not simply buying products, but have a long term commitment to and relationship with all of the groups.
Shipments are sent to Maryland approximately every six weeks. Mary Joan Ferrara-Marsland receives, organizes, and ships out all the great textiles to fair trade stores all over the U.S., and to generous and dedicated individuals who sell Mayan Hands goods on consignment at their churches, weavers' guilds, peace and justice groups, outdoor fairs and festivals, and anywhere else they can find an interested audience.
Some details
Mayan weavers weave beautiful cloth for their own and their family's clothing. We usually design our products based on the cloth of women's blouses (called huipils), which vary according to the town where the women live; and, concomitantly, designs and products are based on market trends in the U.S. market. Thus, we try to combine the traditional and the modern. The women have stated clearly to us that, although they have a commitment to weave their own clothes within the traditional framework of their community, they will gladly weave cloth with different colors or designs that will more easily sell in the international market.
To price the product we always ask the women how much they want for their work. Whenever possible, we give the women what they ask. In some cases, when we think the price is too high, we let the women know that we might have difficulty selling it. Then we begin a process of negotiation, coming to a price both sides think they can live with. If the product takes too long to weave and we cannot sell it for a price that will give the weavers a reasonable return, we will not produce it. It happens sometimes that, after the weavers have been weaving a product for a while, they will come back and say that it takes longer or is more difficult than they had initially assessed. We then review the prices, raising them whenever possible, and if that just won't work we discontinue the item; at the same time we create an alternative product so the women will still have work.
On occasion the women give us an initial price that we think is too low. In these cases we counter their offer with a higher one, which they happily accept.
Mayan Hands has strict quality standards. Traditionally, a weaver's clothes flaunt her talents as a weaver (a very important aspect of her identity) to the entire community. Mayan weavers, thus, have high quality standards for themselves, and because they earn a fair return on their work from Mayan Hands, they weave their pieces carefully. That respect and desire for quality give us a good base to build on, as we teach the women standards and definitions of quality that are different for the international market. One example: consistency in sizing, a new concept to women who first need to learn how to use a ruler, for instance. The weavers have also learned how to wash and iron their pieces, and then carefully pack them for the long trip to the U.S. In our ongoing striving for quality we buy the best mercerized cotton yarns and cotton and rayon embroidery threads available in Guatemala.