Weaving for the Future Cooperative

 The Maya weavers who live in the DC metropolitan area have come together to continue their weaving tradition on the back strap loom, share it with the public, teach their children, and create beautiful items for sale to enable a sustainable cooperative. Cooperativa Tejiendo Para El Futuro is an initiative of the of the Friends of the Ixchel Museum (FOIM). It is one of the ways they fulfill their mission to promote and preserve the Maya textile tradition in the United States and the work of the Museo Ixchel in Guatemala.

 The weavers continue to use the back strap loom, or stick loom, an ingenious and simple device native to pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The warp unites a series of sticks to facilitate the insertion of the weft. It is in the weft that the brocade designs you see originate. As the weaver sets up the loom, she determines the width of the textile, its colors and design. She controls the tension on the threads via the back strap which is wrapped around her lower back; the other end is tied to a sturdy anchor. In the Maya communities, weaving brings a sense of identity not only to the weavers but to the entire community.

Our program presenter, Yolanda Alcorta, is a longtime Board member of the FOIM. She has curated Maya textile exhibits at Longwood Gardens and the Morris Arboretum, established the Education Department at the Mexican Museum in San Francisco, co-founded Raíces Culturales Latinoamericanas (Latin American Cultural Roots) in Philadelphia, created cultural corridors between Philadelphia and Washington artists and audiences, served on the board of the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission and Humanities DC and public school committees, and worked on various interpretive projects at the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Folklife Center. She is currently a committee member of the GuateFest, a large annual Guatemalan community festival, is a bilingual consultant to museums and the non-profit community, and presents and develops programs for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. One of her many current projects is the formation of a women’s weaving cooperative, Weaving For The Future, sponsored by FOIM.

Jenny Juarez Lopez, Intermediate Weaver and Virginia Tech graduate, will be demonstrating Maya backstrap weaving for us. “For me weaving is acknowledging the Guatemalan Maya side of me. I was born in the U.S., but I was raised with the culture and the traditions that my mother grew up with, and weaving is one of the traditions deeply rooted in Guatemala’s Maya culture. Currently, I enjoy demonstrating at many events, showcasing the beauty of weaving.”

Join us to learn about this ancient, portable method of weaving.  You will even have the opportunity to try it yourself.