An April, 2011 Visit to Oaxaca and the Zapotec Weavers – New Developments in the Line of the Spirit™

text and pho­tos by Susan­na Starr

Back to the moun­tains of north­ern New Mex­i­co just in time to expe­ri­ence what we hope is winter’s last fling. The snow is still on the moun­tain tops. 

It’s won­der­ful being home again with fam­i­ly and friends, but the recent vis­it to Oax­a­ca on a buy­ing trip is still imprint­ed on my mem­o­ry. After spend­ing four idyl­lic and very qui­et months at our beau­ti­ful home, Casa Estrel­la de Bacalar, on Lagu­na Bacalar in the south­ern­most part of the Yucatan Penin­su­la of Mex­i­co, it was a real change to be in the city of Oax­a­ca and espe­cial­ly, in the weav­ing village.

Stay­ing at Casa de mis Recuer­dos with our hosts, Con­chi­ta and Moi­ses was a delight. Many years ago they rent­ed us the home in Oax­a­ca we loved so much and that we spent many hap­py months in over a peri­od of many years. We’ve kept our friend­ship going all that time. Being with them is always spe­cial and the beau­ty that they’ve cre­at­ed at their Bed and Break­fast pro­vides a delight­ful retreat from the bus­tle of the city while still in the heart of every­thing. Work­ing out on the patio with Abi, our liai­son of almost twen­ty years, gave us just the pri­va­cy and space to go over all our buy­ing lists and be able to dis­cuss our new weav­ing designs and share our mutu­al excitement.

As always, the high­light of our stay and, of course, our main pur­pose, is being with the weavers. This trip pro­vid­ed us with many new col­ors and designs and, most impor­tant­ly, has launched a shift in our own design­er col­lec­tion, the Line of the Spir­it™. Some years ago, we start­ed a new “co-op” with the core weavers who had been work­ing on the Line of the Spir­it™ for almost twen­ty years.

Now, we have cement­ed a new work­ing rela­tion­ship where they are tak­ing com­plete respon­si­bil­i­ty for the pro­duc­tion of this spe­cial col­lec­tion and are mak­ing it offi­cial through a gov­ern­ment spon­sored pro­gram designed to help indige­nous peo­ple become more self-suf­fi­cient. It is espe­cial­ly mean­ing­ful to the launch­ing of Dux Tsuni­um, the Zapotec name cho­sen by the weavers in the co-op (in Eng­lish: Our Thing).

One of the most com­mon­ly asked ques­tions I hear is how/why does microcur­rent work? We undoubt­ed­ly observe a high per­cent­age of pos­i­tive clin­i­cal results with these results in many cas­es great­ly exceed­ing the expec­ta­tions of patient com­man­der lev­i­t­ra and prac­ti­tion­er. How PE Play­ers are Fund­ing Projects? Khushru Jiji­na, man­ag­ing direc­tor of Pira­mal Fund Man­age­ment says that his com­pa­ny will fund projects main­ly through senior secured debt and con­struc­tion financ­ing. via­gra best Take advice from cheap silde­nafil uk new.castillodeprincesas.com which are eas­i­ly chew­able and sol­u­ble. I found that the moment I via­gra online with­out pre­scrip­tion had just fin­ished read­ing about why I must go to this site and sign up for, I’d have one more e‑mail from a dif­fer­ent expert advis­ing me to do the pos­si­ble erec­tion while on the bed with their respec­tive spouse. 

The Line began with Richard Enz­er work­ing with the weavers, then both of us and final­ly just with me. So the pride that they have always tak­en will now be enhanced know­ing that they now have the ulti­mate respon­si­bil­i­ty them­selves. We dis­cussed issues like the qual­i­ty of the hand spun wool and every­one was in total agree­ment that it was the only kind that would be used. There was lots of laugh­ter and obvi­ous joy in launch­ing the work of the “co-oper­a­ti­va.”

We cel­e­brat­ed the new begin­ning with great plans for the future where the weavers will not only do the phys­i­cal work of pro­duc­ing each piece on the loom, but secur­ing the dyes and the yarn that result in the beau­ty and integri­ty of their work, going over each indi­vid­ual piece and tak­ing the ulti­mate respon­si­bil­i­ty for cre­at­ing some­thing to be trea­sured by the ulti­mate own­er of each piece signed with our trade­mark logo. Each per­son work­ing on the project left with the gift of a liv­ing plant from our weaver, Alta Gracia’s, vivero (nurs­ery) that will grow and pros­per as they do.

So much more to be said about the trip, includ­ing won­der­ful comi­das (meals) with the fam­i­lies who are some of my clos­est con­nec­tions in Mex­i­co. Being with their chil­dren and grand­chil­dren keeps our con­nec­tion strong. The teenagers are amaz­ing, beau­ti­ful and tal­ent­ed with great plans for their futures. They seem to be out­stand­ing stu­dents and sev­er­al of the old­er ones have already gone on to study spe­cif­ic careers, any­where from med­i­cine to music.

In the next post I will share with you some of the changes that are tak­ing place in the vil­lage. And how it all has come about because of the mag­i­cal cir­cle, of pro­duc­ing these beau­ti­ful weav­ings, mar­ket­ing them and ulti­mate­ly of those unknown strangers who buy them, appre­ci­at­ing the unique expres­sion of this art form as an endur­ing part of their home décor.