In March of 2009, a truck filled with plastic storage bins backed up to our warehouse door, with each of the more than 400 bins contained a different textile product from Guatemala.  For a company that in the past worked with fair trade organizations in 20 countries, we knew suprisingly little about textiles and even less about Guatemala.  But there we were, in a sea of plastic storage bins stacked so high we’d created a labyrinth.

It was not in our strategic plan for 2009 to begin distributing the products of Maya Traditions but the founder of the organization, Jane Mintz was very persuasive.  Jane had been diagnosed with lung cancer and one of her main concerns was how would the weavers and craftspeople that relied on the sustainable wage of craft sales find a market in the US without Maya Traditions US operations.  We dipped our toes into the business at first by processing orders and distributing the goods that Jane had imported, enabling Jane to focus on her health.  We usually don’t have the opportunity to test the market with products but by September we were placing orders directly with Fundacion des Mayas Tradiciones in Guatemala and Jane was thrilled.

Fair Trade producer Maya Traditions headquarters in Guatemala

Jane would call often on the Maya Traditions number we operated and we would have hour-long chats about everything from the processes of backstrap weaving to her latest cancer treatment.  She was in San Francisco receiving medical treatment, hoping she would soon be well enough to return to Guatemala and that we would visit.  When we spoke at the beginning of November, we made tentative plans to meet in Guatemala in January, discovering that we shared a birthday and wouldn’t it be wonderful to spend it together there.  Sadly, Jane died later that month at her San Francisco home.

We traveled to Guatemala a few days after the date that would have been Jane’s 67th birthday, the remnants of her day-long memorial held two days before a testament to Jane’s love for the country and the people and their love of her.  Countless poster boards of images of Jane’s life flanked by candles and freshly replaced flowers were displayed in the house-turned-offices of the Fundacion and in Jane’s Guatemalan home shedding a great deal of light on the woman we’d only known through phone calls.   After each visit to weavers who lived in villages near Panajachel, the town on Lake Atitlan where Jane lived,  I’d revisit the images and by the time I left, I had met many of the women in the pictures.

Jane was a weaver and found herself in the highlands of Guatemala after being told it was the place for handmade textiles.  She was effected deeply by the poverty of the indigeous women, their low self-esteem, and often horrific living conditions and made it her life’s work to empower the women through their skills to take control of their future and the future of their children.  While the techniques the weavers still use are traditional, it was Jane’s eye and background that led to products that had quality and style far above those available in the market stalls.  The Fundacion will continue its community work including offering design and color workshops to the weavers, medicinal herbs from the Fundacion’s garden, and scholarships to the children of the women.  Jane’s legacy is the empowerment of the women of the small villages to earn a sustainable living through their craft and we are proud to be a small part of it.