Weavers of Cojolya gather in recognition of World Fair Trade Day.

Cojolya celebrated World Fair Trade with its members on May 14^th. Some of them brought their children, dressed up in traditional clothes for the occasion. Cojolya is based in Santiago Atitlán in the Guatemalan highlands. We are dedicated to the preservation of the ancient art of Maya back-strap loom weaving and the traditions surrounding it – not just as a historic relic, but as a viable economic enterprise for the women who weave.

Candis Krummel, Chief Designer and co-founder of the association, made a quick recap of how much has changed since Cojolya was founded in 1983. Back then, she crossed 16 km wide Lake Atitlán from Santiago Atitlán to Panajachel every Friday to receive orders over a broken phone line. Today, the world is at our fingertips.

Candis grabbed a camera and took individual photos of all members, so that our clients will get familiar with the faces of our great producers.

We talked about WFTO and the standards we have to fulfill in order to be members of the organization. A computer screen displayed the WFTO logo, so that every member of our association gets familiar with it, while discussing its significance. We hope that the WFTO membership will help us connect with like-minded people and open up markets for Cojolya’s products around the globe.

Accountant Carina Coché Vasquez and Production Manager and co-founder Antonio Ramírez Sosof translated between the local language Tz’utujil and Spanish when necessary, although most of the meeting was conducted in Tz’utujil.

At length, we discussed the responsibilities we have towards each other within the organization. One member shared a story to illustrate the dangers of letting others copy Cojolya’s designs. If this happens, all members of the association will lose out, he said.

The weavers noted the widths and designs they currently weave. They were encouraged to learn new patterns through Cojolya’s Master Weaver Maria Sosof Ixbalan.

To finish our three hour long meeting, we shared fruit juice and chuchitos, corn dough filled with chicken and a tasty tomato sauce, steamed in corn husks.

Cojolya's black-and-white Fan Bag is displayed by model Laura Pontaza. The photographer's assistant helps with the light.

by Candis E. Krummel

The clothes are all laid out, each with a new accessory woven by Cojolya’s expert weavers, ready to be worn by the model, Laura Pontaza who is coming from Guatemala City to Santiago Atitlán for a photo shoot of our new products.  This is an exciting event!

Model, local professional photographer Juan Manuel Sisay and his assistant.

The photo shoot will take place at my home, as there are many lovely settings in the buildings and the gardens, at the shore of the lake and on the roof terrace, where we can create an appropriate background for the various accessories.

Model Laura Pontaza looks for inspirational music in her cell phone. Here together with photographer Juan Manuel Sisay and Cojolya's designer Candis E. Krummel.

The Guatemala City model is a bit of a diva and she requires music to be able to get into the mood to work.  “But the air is filled with birdsong.” …no way! We manage to resolve this problem – out here in the middle of the cornfields – with music she has recorded on her cell phone, after all, only her favorite songs will inspire!!! 

We begin the shoot in the late afternoon of the first day, with the weather clouding over and threatening rain.  With luck, we finish before the thundershowers begin.

A 6am call for the morning shoot gives us the sunshine and perfect lighting for the remainder of our photos.  These great new accessories will soon be posted on the web site.  We will send out an email when the dramatic Jaspe Wraps, our fashionable Mayan Venus scarves, the perfect-for-summer Espadrille Clutches and even more, are ready for you to purchase at our on-line store.

Guatemala always celebrates Mother’s Day on May 10. The United States, Canada, and another 76 countries, celebrate Mother’s Day the second Sunday of May. The mothers in Sweden and eight more countries are honored on the fourth Sunday of May.

Designer Shopping Bag from our Bamboo Carnelian collection.

As a Swede, married to a Texan, who lives in Guatemala, and the mother of two, I feel entitled to at least three Mother’s Day celebrations!

If this is not enough, below is a trip itinerary that offers many opportunities to celebrate Mother’s Day around the world.

Norway is first out by celebrating Mother’s Day on February 12. From there you can cruise south to Georgia for its March 3 celebration, then swing by Bosnia on March 8 and check into the United Kingdom for March 18. Next, we are onto North African and the Middle East, where mothers have their special day on the first day of spring, March 21. Armenia is the only country honoring Mothers in April. In May, it gets hectic. The journey begins on May 6 when five countries, including Mozambique, celebrate their Mothers. Bring your husband when you head to South Korea on May 8, as it celebrates Parent Day; then hop back to Guatemala for the 10, turn north to be in the United States on the 13. Paraguay is awaiting you on May 15.  Cross half the globe to be in Poland for May 26, hurry back to Bolivia, where mothers are honored on May 27, which this year coincides with the fourth Sunday of May.  Nicaragua is waiting for you on May 30. Now, it gets really exciting, because you have to make it in time for the celebration in Mongolia on June 1. Its capital Ulaanbaatar is 14 hours ahead of Managua, so you better plan this one well. Catch your breath and cruise through Luxemburg on June 12 and go to Kenya on June 26.  Not a single country celebrates its mothers in July! Thailand is waiting for you with open arms to celebrate Mother’s Day on August 12, which by no accident also is Queen Sirikit Kitiyakara’s birthday. On the 15, you should aim for Costa Rica. Take a rest in September. Alas, Malawi is calling on October 10, Belarus on the 14 and Argentina on the 16. November – hello! Is Thanksgiving our only celebration? Well, make amends and go for a good Mother’s Day celebration in Panama on December 8 and Indonesia has its special day for Mothers on December 22. January gives good rest, before the world tour begins again!

Does this sound exhausting? I believe three Mother’s Day in a month is just right.

I came across this information by looking up: www.mothersdaycentral.com/when/. Please, double-check the dates before you take off on the Mother’s Day World Tour!

 Responsibilities:

Primarily you will be responsible for creating content for our blog and electronic newsletter and developing and coordinating promotional campaigns related to our online store. As the point person for our English speaking clients, fluency in English is essential. You also should be comfortable speaking and writing in Spanish.

Ideally we are seeking a candidate who is also able to identify and respond to grant opportunities.

Skills and Other Requirements:

Fluency in English and Spanish

Excellent writing skills

Creative, positive and reliable

Conversant in managing website, Facebook page and other social media

Familiar with and committed to Fair Trade values

Able to function as part of a team and to work independently

The position is full-time and open from May 2012, but starting date is flexible. A two-year commitment is preferred and a minimum of one-year is required. Living in Santiago Atitlán is another requirement. We pay a monthly stipend.

About Cojolya

The association is based in Santiago Atitlán on beautiful Lake Atitlán and your coworkers are mainly Maya Tz’utujil. Cojolya was established in 1983 to preserve the ancient art of back-strap loom weaving. While we develop new designs, the techniques used have existed for millennia. Every piece we produce is exclusive and unique. We run a small museum that explains the history of back-strap loom weaving and we offer weaving tours and classes.

To learn more, please visit our website at: www.cojolya.org

To apply, please send your CV and a personal letter to the board’s president Candis Krummel at candisekrummel@gmail.com.

If you have additional questions, write info@cojolya.org or call + (502) 7762-2615 during office hours.

Isobelo Trejo Peña makes a tambor out of a hollowed almond trunk.

Candis E Krummel, designer and founder of Cojolya, shares another experience from her development work in the Dominican Republic. Follow The DR Diaries at Cojolya’s website.

March 2012

Imagine this scene…

On the beach, sitting on a driftwood log. Ocean waves setting the beat.

The evening sky is brushed with pink, feathery clouds floating over the darkening, turquoise sea. Behind us, hovering over the mountain, the crescent moon is brilliant. This mountain, named by Christopher Columbus as Isabel de la Torre is Puerto Plata’s own Diamond Head.

The evening sky is brushed with pink, feathery clouds floating over the darkening, turquoise sea. Behind us, hovering over the mountain, the crescent moon is brilliant. This mountain, named by Christopher Columbus as Isabel de la Torre is Puerto Plata’s own Diamond Head. This evening is my first lesson in learning to play the tambora, the Dominican drum that is the heart of the meringue beat. This beach is my classroom.

The tambora is of West African origin, a tradition brought with the slaves whom the Spanish imported to Hispaniola to work the gold mines and later the sugar cane plantations. Mine is a rope tuned tambora with goatskin heads, made by a friend of mine, Isobelo Trejo Peña, out of a hollowed almond trunk. It’s a jewel!

Amauris Martínez plays the guira, while Isobelo Trejo Peña plays the tambora he made for Candis Krummel.

My teacher, Amauris Martinez, is a professional percussionist from Puerto Plata with whom I have spent the past two evenings, at his insistence, immersing myself in the rhythm of the music while he played at two very different gigs. The first one was at the home of Miles Peña, a very well known Cuban-exile musician who now lives in Puerto Plata and was having a party to “celebrate love.” You can imagine that the music was more than fabulous and watching the Dominicans, who are passionate about dancing the merengue, was joyful beyond words. Dominicans are born to dance!

The second event was equally amazing; it was the evening show at an all-inclusive resort, with some 1500 or 2000 people in an outdoor setting on the beach, with a huge stage and dance floor the focus of everyone’s attention. The show was like something from Las Vegas. But what made me feel I had indeed been transported to Las Vegas was the amazing experience of suddenly being surrounded by more than a thousand gringos of all ages, milling around me here in the Dominican Republic! I rarely see any gringo tourists in Puerto Plata and never in the small communities in which I work. The presence of so many was shocking!

A bit of Las Vegas moved to the Carribean island.

But what struck me most was how sad it is that these visitors think that the scene in this all-inclusive resort IS the Dominican Republic; that their memories will be of an environment created as a theme park and they will not get to know the beauty of the small towns nestled in the green mountains, nor have a conversation with an old man and his grandson playing dominoes at a table in the shade of a tree, on the streets of Puerto Plata. As one working in sustainable tourism, this experience made a huge impression on me, seeing what it is like for the average tourist who chooses one of these all-inclusive resorts.

But now to return to this lovely evening in my tropical beach class room: learning to play my tambora. Today I only got as far as beginning to teach my right hand to maintain the rhythm on the drum, moving between the deep resonance of the goat-skin head and the tappety-tap on lemon-wood rim. Amauris played the guira (a textured steel instrument which looks like a grater and is played with a metal comb) to keep me on the beat and we actually sounded something like a merengue rhythm section. I never had more respect than I do tonight, for the skills of excellent drummers!

Candis Krummel, designer at Cojolya, and Dr. David Stuart during the UT Maya Meeting 2012 in Antigua.

Winter Solstice 2012 is charged if you are into Maya studies. Or even movies.  2012, directed by Roland Emmerich in 2009, showcases a set of natural disasters that will happen when the world comes to an end on December 21^st 2012. This is supposedly based on auguries from ancient Mesoamerican cultures.

Predictions like this makes a usually composed Dr. David Stuart, the Linda and David Schele Professor of Mesoamerican Art and Writing at University of Texas in Austin, see red. He watches a century of research in Mesoamerican studies go down the drain in a Hollywood minute. So what is all this hoopla about?

“It is a very important calendar date,” Dr. Stuart admitted, when I met him during the 2012 Maya Meeting in Antigua, Guatemala, earlier this month.

The Mesoamerican people counted time in various calendars; the Long Count being one of them. It keeps track of every day under sun in blocks of time that can be compared to days, months, years, decades and centuries. The biggest counting block is a baktun and each baktun consists of 144,000 days, or around 394 solar years. On December 21^st this year, the Long Count will be set on 13.0.0.0.0. Thirteen baktuns have passed since the Mesoamerican Long Count began on August 12^th 3114 BC. That day was registered as 0.0.0.0.1 4 Ahau 8 Kumku – a Long Count day that would repeat on Dec. 22^nd 2012, if we were to turn time to ’0′ to begin a new era of 13 baktuns. (It actually would read 0.0.0.0.1 4 Ahau 4 Kankin).

Why is 13 considered to be the highest number in the counting of baktuns?

“We don’t know why the Mesoamericans liked the number of thirteen, but it occurs in other calendars as well,” Dr. Stuart said. “Thirteen is an important number in the Maya cosmology.”

And why did this creation begin in August some 5,126 years ago?

“The calendar was invented hundreds and hundreds of years before the Classic Maya; the Olmecs had a Long Count. We still don’t know why the starting date was set at 4 Ahau 8 Kumku, other than that the number 4 is important and Ahau is the day of the ruler,” said David Stuart.

But then there is Stela 6 in Tortuguero, Mexico, that has opened up a can of worms. Some interpret its’ inscription as the end of time; others believe that humankind is entering a new enlightened era. The inscriptions states that the 13^th baktun is coming to an end – and then what?

David Stuart, who is one of the world’s foremost epigraphers, said that some of Tortuguero Stela 6’s text is broken up and therefore not possible to fully interpret.

“The Long Count is tied into the political world of the Maya. It was ruling time and people of the time,” said Dr. Stuart, who also believes that it is a coincidence that the thirteenth baktun will  end on Winter Solstice. “The corelation between the Maya and our calendar is messy, some researchers interpret the 13th baktun to end on December 21st, others on December 23rd. This is still being debated.”

Personally he is not worried about the world coming to an end. 

“Time will continue,” he reassured. “There will be a fourteenth baktun, followed by a fifteenth.”

What will you do on December 21st?

“I will probably watch television,” Dr. Stuart said. “A ballgame – soccer.”

By KARIN GEZELIUS BERGSTRESSER

To learn more about the Long Count, go to:  http://mayan-calendar.com/ancient_longcount.html

Hot hats were a hit with Barbara Heckler in a Stained Glass, Gaye Simmons in a Bamboo Rainforest and Mary Lou Sortais in a Mayan Plaid Milano.

SANDI ESCALLE GROUP

Sandi Escalle visited Cojolya Saturday March 17^th together with an Artisan and Jewelry Tour from Southern California. Sandi has turned into a faithful friend of Cojolya as she includes us in her Guatemalan tours that takes place a couple of times a year. Needless to say that our Collection Hats were a success this time?

Claire Engel from Chicago, Anne Specht from New York and Ann Schunior form Boston.

HETTY FRIEDMAN GROUP

Cojolya’s Master Weaver Maria Sosof Ixbalan together with Dolores Ratzan, a trilingual local guide, who arrived with Hetty’s group.

During this time, the surrounding ridges are brilliant with the neon orange flowers.

 February 19^th, 2012 

In the little mountain town of Los Hidalgos, as a “pilot project” of TURISOPP, the people have organized a fair celebrating the blooming season of their beloved forests of amapola trees (Erythrina poeppigiana). During this time, the surrounding ridges are brilliant with the neon orange flowers.

My work in Los Hidalgos was to organize and guide the women to create products which could be sold at this fair. Masters of crochet, the women of Los Hidalgos used fine DMC yarns to create a line of orange amapola flower accessories. With their skilled hands and vivid imaginations, they captured the essence of the fiery amapola flowers.

Legends tell us that when a young woman walks beneath the blooming trees and steps on the fallen petals, true love will quickly find her. So the fair features love: people have signed up to get married in a specially decorated bower; others will renew their vows; they will have serenades for a loved one and piropos on a bridge.

Amapola flowers.

Piropos!?!  What the heck are those???!!! Well, when posing the question, I was asked to get up on the little wooden bridge made for the fair,  and then the men began to sing and recite love poems to me. One young man dramatically presented me with a grapefruit as if it was a huge bouquet of roses and he made up the sweetest poem. Eventually, all the women joined in too, and as this was just a demonstration… we all dissolved in laughter. Declarations of love and admiration are piropos! I never have known a people so quick to recite poems, sing songs and dance. It is surely their Taíno heritage, where the areítos (songs and dances of Taíno history and traditions) went on for an entire day.

Late last night, coming home from the opening night of the Feria de Amapolas, we gave a ride to the musician who was to provide the serenades to the couples or women.  In the van, on the hour-long trip back to Puerto Plata, he serenaded us the entire time, singing those kinds of Spanish songs of longing and love which every Latin I know, has recorded in their memories. My Dominican companions were practically swooning from the sheer ecstasy of having this romantic, live music accompanying us in the van. Though the driver went more slowly, the time flew by in an instant, with all of our voices joining in at the choruses and our grateful applause at the conclusion of each passionate song.

Visitors from the Swedish organizaton IM.

Candis will share her impressions and talk about her work at the Dominican Republic at Cojolya’s blogspot. First, she wants to take us back to her very first impressions of the island and its culture.

The lush mountains and valleys were brilliant in the sunlight.

Sunday June 27, 2010

Flying low over the tropical paradise of the island Hispaniola, the lush mountains and valleys were brilliant in the sunlight as we approached the airport at Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic. After  enduring weeks of rain in Guatemala, the sun was a warm welcome for my arrival to begin design work for TURISOPP, a project for the development of sustainable tourism in the area of Puerto Plata. My role will be as designer in product development, with an emphasis on artisan creations.

Neglected historical jewel of Puerto Plata.

Puerto Plata is situated on the North Coast of the island, where the blue Atlantic meets the verdant mountains.  The colonial port, San Felipe de Puerto Plata, was named and designed by Christopher and his brother Bartholomew Columbus in 1496 and established in 1502.  The entire province of Puerto Plata (which is the object of our mission) is rich with natural attractions located along the abundant rivers of the Royal Palm forested mountains (all this with no poisonous snakes) or along the miles of coastline; archeological sites of the Tainos (and even earlier inhabitants) who were here when Columbus arrived; the very first European settlement in the Americas, La Isabela, with its ruins and Spanish shipwrecks;  the colonial city of Puerto Plata with its multicultural history and architectural gems. In this charming small city, I sense we are looking at an Antigua, Guatemala of some thirty or forty years ago with all of its potential, yet unrealized.

The man in the foreground is our local project coordinator, Takashi Aoki.

The people of Puerto Plata are one of its exceptional resources.  A blending of Taino, Spanish and African genes and cultures, they are warm, open, friendly, enthusiastic and fun-loving.  Music is in their veins and many of our meetings conclude by taking out guitars, accordions, güiras, tamboras and playing typical music with everyone dancing to the merengue.

At least half of the population seems to speak some English and their version of Spanish is all their own… a melodic version, practically unintelligible to those of us from the continent of the Americas.  There is a beautiful mixing of skin colors on faces whose features retain original characteristics from the mix of cultures… in a range of colors from white to chocolate, with no discrimination based upon color apparent within the local population.

The only people who are looked down upon are the Haitians. This discrimination is the result of a complex history between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which is forever  perceived as threatening the Dominicans with the possibility of falling under the rule once again of the Haitian, either formally or  simply by the flood of immigrants entering the country and becoming the dominant majority.   Distinguishable by their darker skin color and French accents, Haitians have come here to seek a better opportunity only to find themselves in the lowest categories of employment in agriculture and construction or on the streets selling fruit.

The malecon and beach in front of my hotel.

I was lucky to find a hotel room right on the malecon (boulevard which follows the coastline), third floor with two balconies overlooking the beach and the tropical-blue Atlantic.  When the wind comes up, there are kite surfers skimming the waves. Being here, one gets the sense of being on a ship at sea:  watching the clouds gathering along the horizon and bringing squalls of rain, and then moving on until the sun comes out again.  I am very aware of the relative smallness of this island in the sea and the urgent necessity to protect this exquisite paradise from further exploitive development.