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The stalk of maguey fiber that I’m scraping, I learned from my mother and father.
That’s how I know how to do it.
I do this to be able to buy corn and for [household] expenses.
This is the trade my parents taught me.
In my family, some spun and others weaved.
This is the trade I learned how to do.
And with it, I’ve raised my children and I continue to do so to this day
The area in which we are in is El Alberto municipality of Ixquimilpan.We are indigenous, from the ˜Nanhus’ community.
In about 1970, irrigation waters began coming our way and people began to work in agriculture. I imagine that now the irrigation water is now contaminated.
This is why the people don’t [find opportunities]. Although they work, no one buys. This is why many have migrated with family and all.
At the start of the 1980s neo-liberal policies came into place and in 1994, NAFTA was implemented.
With this, Mexico’s government withdrew its support and subsidies to small-scale farmers. Subsequently, it became too costly
for smaller agricultural producers to farm, forcing them to migrate to offer their work, cheaper in the United States.
In our community there used to be two groups [of workers]. We used to deliver our products to another community, but they never paid us on time nor did they give us fair pay.
Therefore, we women decided to organize ourselves and form ourselves into one group and make it a cooperative so we could then export our own work.
Through that we are getting a fair price. The cooperative is made up of different communities - such as Alberto, Xuchicl’an, El Dad’o, El Bat’i...
The cooperative, “Ya Muntsi Behña,” which in Spanish means "women united."
We formed community promoters so that they could themselves replicate the workshops in the indigenous language on women’s rights, the environment, and food sovereignty, amongst others.
Technical workshops are also given to the committees so that the women can learn about administrative tools to manage the cooperative.
In the production, diversification of methods has been sought to reclaim their traditional knowledge of working with the agave fibers.
And now we are exploring how to dye fiber, combining material and creating new designs.
Green Heart is a brand that was made for our sponges so if clients are looking, we now had our own brand and they could find us on the Internet.
We designed the heart as our marketing brand, naming it "Green Heart"
These are the products we sell through the Green Heart brand and we have various products. We have 15 different products. And there are different models.
The Fair Trade Center of Green Heart offers other indigenous women’s organizations in Mexico a space for the sale of their artisanship.
We decided to create it, for the difficulties the women artisans have in accessing the market as they confront what we call the triple discrimination: That to of being poor – being a woman – being indigenous. The fair trade center opens new markets for th
Now that there are no remittances, this is the work that helps us to advance because if we didn’t work, we’d just be waiting for our husbands to give us money – but from where?
– because now they don’t have work. But now we as women can move forward through this work that we have. We can support our children who are studying.
I’m proud to have joined the cooperative. I have been working there for about 15, 16 years and I’ve held a [leadership] position for 6 years.
I’m proud of this because I’ve learned many things. I’ve learned to lose my fear. To make projects, to coordinate assemblies, and to do many things.
And for me, I am so proud to be a part of this women’s cooperative because there are many cooperatives that would like to be like us.
But we, over time, we have organized, we can succeed and show other communities that they too can succeed if they organize. They can do it. They can make their own business, their own cooperative.
You have to move forward, seeking resources to support our work as women.