Continuing Textile Traditions in Chiapas: Weaving for Justice

April 20, 2024

Weaving for Justice is an all-volunteer organization with its roots in the anthropological fieldwork in the 1980s in Chiapas, Mexico of co-founder, Christine Eber. Christine and two other members of the Steering Committee will share their perspectives on what it means to stand in solidarity with Maya students and weavers in defense of their right to live with dignity in their home communities and countries. They will explain the evolution of Weaving for Justice as a volunteer organization, particularly how it organizes sales of the brocaded and embroidered textiles from eleven collectives in Chiapas. They will introduce you to some of the weavers and students in San Pedro Chenalhó, Chiapas through a brief slide show of their photos and words, recorded in February 2024 when several Weaving for Justice members last visited Chiapas.

The panel will also discuss their collaboration with the Maya Educational Foundation to raise funds for scholarships for Maya youth to attend high school and university in Belize, Chiapas and Guatemala. Weaving for Justice raises these funds through selling textiles from Latin America that generous folks throughout the United States donate for this purpose. The panel will take place at the same time as the regular Weaving for Justice 3rd Saturday monthly sale in the Atrium of First Christian Church in Las Cruces, which will hopefully make possible a virtual tour of the sale, showing the products being sold and the educational materials that provide context for the public about the weavings, the weavers, and the scholarship students.