My name is Amy Weinreich and I am from New York City.  In the summer of 2018, I traveled on an intensive language and cultural immersion program to Guatemala.  I expected the trip to be exciting and interesting and great for my Spanish - which it was - but I quickly realized there was a lot more at hand. I was introduced to a culture and its people that is wonderful and incredibly troubled at the same time. Guatemala is a poor country and its women are affected most dramatically - especially those women of indigenous ethnicity.  

 

When I returned to the US from Guatemala, I took time to reflect on what I had seen and learned. In just one month, I gained a real appreciation and love for the Guatemalan people and culture. I learned about the brutal and destructive civil war that took place and saw first-hand its impacts on the country and its people today. An estimated 200,000 indigenous people were killed during this lengthy civil war, which finally ended in 1996. More than 440 rural communities in the highlands were completely destroyed. Additionally, many families were broken up permanently and thousands more homes were decimated.

 

Reading about Guatemala and thinking about my experience there, I began to realize that many of the issues the country faces could be eased through women’s education. Through education, women can gain important skills that will enable them to better their lives, and the lives of their families.  Wages are extremely low in Guatemala, and women with education will be able to participate in the economy in ways that most are unable to today. I hope to see women become able to start businesses and find jobs to support themselves and their families instead of having to rely on the men’s salaries as the only source of income.

 

Over the course of the month I spent in Guatemala, I had the opportunity to stay with three very different families: one in the rural town of Pachaj, one in San Juan Cotzal and one in the more urban town of San Juan la Laguna. Although my second homestay in San Juan Cotzal was the shortest, I found it had impacted me the most in terms of my understanding of the effects of the civil war on the country and its people. There, I stayed with a woman whose first language was not Spanish but the Mayan language Ixil, and her daughter who, because of her education, was able to translate from Ixil to Spanish. The mother is part of a cooperative that, just like the thousands of other cooperatives in the country, sells woven handicrafts, ranging from handbags to bracelets to bookmarks. 

 

When I saw peoples’ excitement over the beautiful handicrafts I brought back, I conceived of a way to try to benefit the country that I had grown such a love for. The GuateMinds idea is simple - to make these beautiful, handcrafted Guatemalan items - fashioned almost exclusively by women - available to people around the world. GuateMinds is dealing directly with the Guatemalan trade cooperatives and employs fair trade pricing, with profits directed toward educational opportunities for the Guatemalan women.

 

Thank you for visiting our website and for your interest.  We hope you will support us by purchasing these beautiful handicrafts and spreading the word!