FRIENDS OF THE WORLD

Marta: Guatemala weaver & vendor in Lago Atitlan

By her traditional clothes of ornate blue 'guipile' (tunic) and 'corte' (skirt) Marta is instantly recognisable as being from San Antonio Palapo, on the west shore of Lago Atitlan, Guatemala: a stunning volcanic location at altitude in the central highlands of Guatemala. However, she has lived in San Pedro, a bustling and popular tourist town on the opposite shore, for the past 3 years or so, where there is a little more chance for her to sell her wares (in the same way as Maria in Nahuala/Xela).

I first met Marta, in 2013 when she was 23 and I was studying more Spanish at the San Pedro Spanish School..I'd often see her walking the lanes of the touristed part of town, carrying a heavy stack of scarves and weavings on one shoulder, hoping that the odd tourist would buy something. Like Maria, there is so much competition these days between street-vendors, it's very hard and often unrewarding work, especially to be walking all day in the hot sun.

Most of those times she'd be accompanied by her (then 3-year-old) daughter, Silvia-Acuzena, who is a little cutie. But that also seemed like a hard life for such a little girl, walking and selling all day with her mother!

However, I loved the new blues and designs Marta seemed to have and bought a couple. I also found her to be 'visually' fascinating (as I do with so many traditional people in this part of the world!) and asked to take some photos of her. It also seemed to me that many other people like to take these photos, but don't buy any souvenirs, and so I suggested that I could design and print some postcards of her, as a gift, and she could sell them to tourists who otherwise would take her photo but not buy anything, and at least she could earn from that activity.

Well, a long story short, for reasons of not wishing to profit form her own image, nor to risk the opportunity for someone to mis-use or abuse her image, she declined. But we became friends and started to chat more about ways to help her, especially during the low tourist seasons.

Now, for those times when I can't get in touch with Maria, I have the option of Marta, because she basically sells a similar range of things, including the popular cotton scarves ('bufandas')

Another way to help is that Silvia recently started basic primary school, but needs a little extra help. So I bought a child's course book and together once a week we began to study letters of the alphabet, spelling and writing. Marta comes too and it's a fun experience and very humbling opportunity to help my friends in these ways.