{"id":2263,"date":"2024-02-06T17:03:20","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T17:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.favla.org\/historias\/weaving-dreams\/"},"modified":"2024-03-16T20:56:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T20:56:15","slug":"weaving-dreams","status":"publish","type":"historias","link":"https:\/\/www.favla.org\/en\/stories\/weaving-dreams\/","title":{"rendered":"Weaving dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Weaving dreams<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJosefa Ipuana Tiles, a Wayuu woman from the Maku ranch in Maicao – La Guajira, is one of the 30 participants in the “Empowerment of Indigenous Artisan Women” Project developed by the ACDI\/VOCA LA Foundation in alliance with the company PepsiCo and the Program of Alliances for Reconciliation PAR of USAID and ACDI\/VOCA. From the beginning of its implementation in November 2018 and for a period of 22 months, this alliance strengthened the skills to generate personal, economic and organizational empowerment of indigenous women, promoting artisan entrepreneurship based on innovation in the Maku community.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cI have learned a lot, to look for the details of the fabric, where it is good, where it is bad, I have learned to detail my work. I would like to have a small handicrafts shop, because you must start from the bottom\u201d, affirms Josefa.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJosefa is a woman “thrown forward” and her life has passed between Colombia and Venezuela, as is the case with a large part of the Wayuu people. She came to the Maku ranch at the age of four when her family migrated from Alta Guajira. At the age of 15, she moved to Maracaibo (Venezuela) to weave and sell her products; Later, in the capital Caracas, she meets the father of her three children, and she has lived there for more than 40 years. Josefa finally returns to Maku to take care of her mother, but her relationship with Venezuela continues, she says: “I miss my home, I miss my bed, I miss being with my children.”\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJosefa’s vocation for weaving began when she was very young when her older brother made her crochet knitting needles from thick wires that he filed to sharpen them. Many years of practice led her to become a master craftsman, however, deep down she knew that the quality of her knitting could improve.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Josefa’s attitude when she joined the Project, according to her words, was \u201cannoying to be reborn again, but instead of doing nothing\u2026\u201d. Despite how difficult the process of change is, she chose to get out of her comfort zone to act and reinvent herself; As she got involved in the rescue of techniques and the co-creation of new products, Josefa made it clear that “many things can be done with the same craft, ideas emerge quickly when one remembers that.”<\/p>

The positive evolution of Josefa’s attitude also resulted in the involvement of her son in the project, who, like other men who followed his example, changed their perception of activities that were previously only carried out by women. He comments: “I have learned a lot, they told me that crafts were for women and not for men, I was interested in learning, nothing is difficult in life, and I did it, now I want people to recognize me for my art\u201d.<\/p>

Josefa and her son found in this project the opportunity to change their attitude and behaviour towards life and gender roles around traditional Wayuu weaving. She, transforming and evolving in the quality and products of her fabric, and he, building her identity from a trade that was perceived to be associated only with women.<\/p>

Colombia is a country with great cultural diversity, it has 115 indigenous groups (DANE, 2018), and each of these communities in their uses and customs involves crafts as a manifestation of their material culture. For this reason, any effort made towards the rescue of techniques, materials and social practices that claim the existence, permanence and memory of indigenous peoples is highly valued.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Other Stories<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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