CARE and Parsons The New School for Design
A Pattern Emerging
CARE)
In June, a group of New School students, in partnership with CARE, made that long journey to Guatemala. For two months prior to the flight, design, management and international affairs students worked on how they could help the women of Ajkem'a Loy'a, an association of Mayan women in the lakeside village of San Lucas Toliman, turn their artisan business into a sustainable source of income. For the students, here was a chance to turn those long hours of theory into reality.
There was a lot to cover in just four short weeks: everything from how to put a fair price on one's work, run workshops geared toward foreign tourists and develop a business plan, to teaching the women how to make patterns, use a sewing machine and even to push the limits of traditional design in new directions for a foreign market. As Pascale Gatzen, one of the instructors from Parsons (part of the New School), says, "We are trying to do in one month what the students do in four years."
Still, this wasn't going to be a case of simply jetting down with a laptop filled with answers. The students had some ideas they would share with Ajkem'a Loy'a to help their business grow. But they also intended to learn from the women and involve them in every step of the process. So after busing in from the capital, then checking into their simple accommodations in the annex of the Hotel Molina, the students were ready to go – it was non-stop after that.
[[image-2]]With only a month in Guatemala, there were not going to be a lot of wasted moments. This meant that the annex, which also doubled as workshop central, was always a beehive of activity. If you didn't see the students in a meeting with the women, or strapped into backstrap looms, or bent over sewing machines, they were probably in their hotel room with a few other students working on a new design or idea, getting ready for the next round of consultation. Or making a grilled cheese sandwich with a clothes iron when a pang of homesickness hit.
But consultation was the key. David Dorfman, a master's graduate in international affairs from New York City, who already has his own fair trade company, says, "It taught me a lot about collaboration with a group, especially a group that wants to collaborate and grow. We didn't do anything without their input. We worked together to make decisions." David adds, after pausing a moment, "You have to think of how this might change their culture as well."
The students seemed keenly aware that this project was to be an exchange of ideas and not just a one-way street. "You come into their lives and they look at you like some kind of expert, but you have to work with them," says Jeremy Goodwin, a Parson's design student from Buffalo, N.Y. "We have some expertise, but we don't have all the knowledge. There is a tremendous responsibility when you come into someone's life like this and try to help make changes."
[[image-3]]Jeremy was putting the final touches to the lettering of Ajkem'a Loy'a's new storefront. While adding a bit more paint to his brush, he adds, "As designers we try to work as facilitators and not as overlords who decide everything. So the women have to want to make the changes. They still remain here when we leave."
But even if the students were serious about their work, it was far from a grind or a race to the finish line so that they could get back home. Nika Stelman, a design and management student from Canada, says, "I learned so much. On a basic level, I learned to weave (the Mayan women gave workshops to all the students in weaving, jewelry making and beading). But on a much grander scale, I learned so much about development work – about the way design and management can work together. And culture. Also, the way they took us into their lives." With obvious enthusiasm, she adds, "They even cooked for us and showed us Mayan dancing. They were so welcoming."
The students traveled a long way to meet and work with the women of Ajkem'a Loy'a, both in distance and culturally, but they have also taken part in a new beginning. David remembers how a CARE worker had said that this workshop was like planting a small seed and watching it grow. "These women are taking their lives into their own hands and creating something new." He has high hopes for their success and plans on coming back in a year to see how things are going.
Maybe a simple statement from Nika sums up the students' feelings best, "It doesn't end here. The connections we made are for life."
And the Ajkem'a Loy'a store that Jeremy helped paint has reopened, sporting its new coat of paint, a new layout and a new logo, which the students designed with, as you might have guessed, constant input from the women. Jeremy says, "Before, the store was used mostly for storage. Now the women see the store as a place of hope." They are already putting new things in it: some pieces that are traditional and others that are taking tradition in a new direction. Change is in the air.
The Women of Ajkem'a Loy'a: A New Beginning
[[image-4]]All is quiet on the slopes of Toliman Volcano, but then again it is very very early. Even that predawn songbird, the family rooster, hasn't shattered the silence – yet. But not everyone is still asleep. All over Guatemala, and here on the shores of the volcano-ringed Lake Atitlan in San Lucas Toliman, Mayan women are up making corn tortillas – the sounds of their hands clapping together to shape the little pancake-like staple.
Romelia Raxtun Ajcalon, a young mother of four has relit her wood-fired stove and finished making the family's tortillas. Now, after preparing the rest of breakfast and then cleaning the house and dressing her youngest child, she wraps her young baby in a rainbow-colored shawl that she swings over her back before heading down the cobblestone street to the annex of the Hotel Molina.
Romelia and some other members of Ajkem'a Loy'a, an artisan group of Kakchiquel women, have been following this routine for years, all except for the turn into the annex. But for the past month there has been a slight twist in the routine. This month they have been meeting and working with a group of students and instructors from New York's New School's International Affairs graduate program and Parsons design and management programs, all with an aim at making their business into a sustainable source of income.
"It was a very different course from anything I have ever taken," said Romelia, her eyes lighting up and a warm smile crossing her face. "In other workshops we just talked, but in this one we were doing things all the time. It was very exciting and we got to show the students things as well, like how to weave and make beaded wristbands and belts. We were always working together. They didn't just tell us things. They listened to our ideas." It was also the first time she had ever worked with foreigners.
Exciting for sure, but demanding too. In a way, as Pascale Gatzen, the design instructor from Parsons, said, "We are trying to cover in a month what the students do in four years." There were workshops on how to give workshops to tourists, and workshops in business, in design, pattern making and even sewing as the women had never used sewing machines before. "For me one of the most important things was learning to sew and make patterns," said Romelia.
Although Romelia and the other members of Ajkem'a Loy'a are all excellent weavers, they had never thought of changing the way they made things. Now they do. Part of the workshop process was coming up with new designs based on traditional patterns. "We are going to design things for tourists, but if a tourist wants something made from their own design, we will be able to do that too." But it takes time. "A set of placemats can take five days or more if the design is complicated," said Romelia. "It takes that long because there is so much work to do at home, too." And for Romelia, it is not just housework and all that this entails in a traditional society, but teaching as well.
Romelia has about 20 students, half of which show up at her home on any given afternoon for instruction in reading and writing Spanish. Romelia always seems to be smiling when she talks, but she says her students think she is very demanding.
"I usually don't go to bed until midnight because, after my housework, I still need to prepare for teaching and the workshops." Hard to believe that she can find the time to do it all, but as Romelia said, "I want to progress and do much more in this life. I have so many things to do each day, but I can give the time for these workshops because I learn so much."
Change is coming to San Lucas Toliman. You can see it on the streets of this sleepy Guatemalan town where many of the young girls now wear jeans and chat away on cell phones. And you can see it on the faces of Romelia and her friends in Ajkem'a Loy'a when they talk about their plans for the future.
Romelia's hopes for Ajkem'a Loy'a are high. "I want the association to grow and have a permanent location with a restaurant, a room where we can make our crafts and give workshops, and a store to sell our products. And I want to see visitors from the United States come to San Lucas and take our workshops."
But maybe David Dorfman, who just finished his master's degree in international affairs at the New School said it best when talking about the future for these women, "Our expectations are very high. You are very powerful women."
The workshops are over now. The students have returned to the United States, but for the women of Ajkem'a Loy'a it is a new beginning – even if they are still up before the roosters start crowing.
See the students' work and read about their adventures in Guatemala on their trip blog >>
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