The Mixtec pueblo of Guadalupe Miramar, high in Mexico's Sierra Madre, is a place whose isolation almost guarantees anonymity. Who lives there, how they survive and what stories they can tell seem destined to remain locked in the mountains.
Yet neither the canyons of the Sierra Madre nor the gulfs between cultures kept the women weavers of Miramar and members of The Circle of Women in the United States and the city of Oaxaca from meeting, connecting and, over the course of years, transforming each other's lives. Weaving Yarn, Weaving Cultures, Weaving Lives tells the story of that remarkable transformation.
Many people with useful skills, good ideas and fine intentions come to Oaxaca, one of Mexico's most impoverished states, to try to help. All too often their efforts end in frustration. They return home with stories about how Oaxacans resist change, while the people they tried to help shake their heads at the foreigners' ignorance of their real needs, naïveté and arrogance.
A few, however, know or learn that change takes time, patience and trust; and above all the willingness to work face-to-face and side-by-side as equals. As one of the indigenous weavers whose stories appears in this book announced, "Don't tell me you have a solution if I haven't told you I have a problem."
The weavers of Miramar are distinguished by working three lines of color simultaneously, a complex technique that allows them to weave a myriad of intricate patterns. Similarly, this book intertwines three complementary strands – the often heartrending stories of the individual weavers, the story of the intense and sustained mutual efforts it took to help them, and the beauty of their weavings.
Helping the weavers of Miramar move from poverty, illiteracy and dependency to self-sufficiency, empowerment, and dignity took many steps. One area described in detail is how these women, many of whom spoke only their indigenous language and could not even sign their names, learned to speak, read and write Spanish. Crucially, it was the weavers themselves who identified illiteracy as a central problem, and it took sustained and creative work by the Circle of Women to create a program that met the weavers' unique circumstances and needs.
Invited into these interlocking circles of women was Tom Feher, whose understated yet deeply perceptive photographs do much to help tell the story of the village of Miramar, its mountain setting and, of course, the weavers and their work.
Weaving Yarn, Weaving Cultures, Weaving Lives will be a delight and resource to anyone interested in weaving, in other cultures, or in philanthropy. Far beyond that, however, it tells a truly touching story of how people separated by vast cultural differences were able to connect, learn from one another and create something of great value and beauty.
Source:
- Lockhart-Radtke, Judith. Weaving Yarn, Weaving Cultures, Weaving Lives: A Circle of Women in Miramar, Oaxaca, Mexico. Photography by Tom Feher. Almadia, November, 2010. ISBN 978-607-411-059-3.
Robert Adler - Robert Adler is a science and technology reporter and book author. He divides his time between Santa Rosa, California and Oaxaca, ...
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