Textile donor remembers her family’s story with Mayan textiles and cooperatives
By Liana Laughlin, Weaving for Justice textile donor
As a child I met the weaver Walter “Chip” Morris (author of “Living Maya” and other books). He came into the house (in Chiapas, Mexico) with very fine textiles and then told us stories about what each design meant in the weaving mills and about the weavers who made them. My parents were fascinated by what he had to say and wanted to support his work in every possible way. They bought many, many of his weaving mills. They were thrilled when he founded a cooperative in which the weavers could sell their work to the growing tourism. He made sure that the weaving mills sold were of the highest quality. I too would go to the cooperative to buy weaving mills.
You could feel the racism in San Cristóbal against the Maya, so it was important to support them and still do. We donated the weaving mills (for the fundraiser) when we both had to downsize and what better place than Weaving for Justice and the Maya Educational Foundation. They recognize and appreciate high quality weaving mills; They care about where the piece was made and the date of the piece. Not only that, the proceeds will also be used to empower Mayan women through education.
My mother worked for years as a scholarship holder for FOMMA, a women’s cooperative that worked hard to empower women through feminist plays they performed in rural villages. They gave literacy classes and helped Mayan women learn work skills as they transitioned from the subsistence level in their villages to the Ladin city. Many of these women were thrown out of their communities after being raped. For the first time in their life they needed childcare, so FOMMA provided childcare. Since we know their stories, it is particularly important to us to enable Maya women to get a university education and at the same time to support their weaving.
Liana Laughlin’s parents are Weaving for Justice donors Robert and Miriam Laughlin. Her godfather, Godfather, Romin Teratol of Zinacantán, Chiapas, Mexico, became Bob Laughlin’s partner in Laughlin’s research on the Tsotsil language of Zinacantán. Bob Laughlin became a renowned linguist of the Mayan languages, while Miriam Laughlin wrote short stories about life in the Chiapas highlands. Teratol’s son Xun is now the director of Sna Jtz’ibajom (House of the Writer), an organization of Mayan authors in San Cristóbal de Las Casas that mentors university students who benefit from the “Weaving for Justice” fundraiser.
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