The Artisans of Ethical Fashion Guatemala have an e-commerce website for Guatemalan Artisans, — they are going after thousands of worldwide sellers who are either hawking fakes or just blatantly ripping off the Guatemalan artisans they buy from.
“People do not buy goods and services.
They buy relations, stories, and magic.”
Seth Godin
Artisan Product Company “Handcrafted” or “handmade” has become a trend for those seeking to find rare, unique, one-of-a-kind products.
Idea theft and mass production of fakes are rampant all over Central and Latin America; many artisans have been taken advantage of for years.
Ethical Fashion Guatemala combats this by developing and maintaining relationships to provide a platform for sharing artisan products direct to consumers at market price.
For example, the Ethical Fashion Guatemala Textile Co-Operatives follow the Ancient Maya tradition of weaving in which the women had three natural types of cotton to work with; one white, one dark brown, and the other light brown, called coruscate, both of which were commonly dyed.
The preparation of cotton for spinning is very burdensome; the cotton is washed and picked clean of seeds. It can take up to 14 hours to spin and dye a single ball of yarn.
These artisans are talented, proud people who work hard and put in a lot of hours to fabricate beautiful items. These stories need to be told, and I would like to tell them.
James Dillon
Our goal is to provide jobs for Artisans, not donations by being a Guatemala Artisan Product Company.
The Corporate structure of Ethical Fashion Guatemala is a Guatemala SA, the term used to describe a legal Corporation in the country of Guatemala.
Carlos Saturnino Tzul is the executive director living in Panajachel Lake Atitlan Guatemala.
Carlos’ family roots in Guatemala include Atanasio Tzul, who was a Guatemalan indigenous leader, of the Mayan K’iche ‘people , representative figure of the indigenous uprising of Totonicapán in 1820 , who defeated the Spanish power of the town and imposed for twenty-nine days a self-government in the region known as Totonicapán en the Kingdom of Guatemala
The Mayan Culture of Guatemala suffered through 37 years of Civil War and over 250,000 Mayan people were murdered over land for a company called Chiquita Bananas. The war ended in 1996 and Artisans did not have access to the outside world in order to sell the art they produce by hand. Also lacking is a country postal service to ship these goods.
Through our relationship with a DHL Worldwide shipping, we provide Artisans a direct shipping option to their consumers without the mark up of a middle man.
We assist Artisans in setting up Facebook sites and we also have an online shop with many of our Artisans’ work for sale. Go direct, pay a fair price and have the beautiful items shipped to your door.
About Ethical Fashion Guatemala photographs, product pictures, and words we offer on this website are about Artisans we know and work with every day.
They are our trusted friends; we are part of their family in Guatemala and other countries. We feel comfortable with you contacting our Artisans with any questions and are happy to provide their contact information.
Our business with these amazing, kind people is about transparency, honesty and the trust we have together. To showcase the craft and to make sure they receive a fair price for the products they produce.
Work we have carried on for over 11 years.
Our work offers help for The coffee producer may not exactly fit into the minds of most consumers as “handmade,” but it is.
In Guatemala, coffee producers last year were paid $1.54 per pound for premium shade-grown green coffee beans. Shade-grown coffee is a form of the beverage produced from coffee plants grown under a canopy of trees A canopy of assorted types of shade trees is created to cultivate shade-grown coffee.
The resulting coffee is usually sold as “shade-grown.” Coffee (especially Coffea arabica) is a small tree or shrub that grows in the forest understory in its wild form and was traditionally grown commercially under other trees that provided shade. Since the mid-1970s
Sold now in the US at $13-$21 per 12-ounce pack.
This is an acceptable amount of markup that the grower does not receive.
We believe the fair price for a 12 ounce pack of coffee can be found on our website and we ship direct to you, our customer, with NO MIDDLE MAN MARKUP.
Shipping Artisan Products From Guatemala.
Ethical Fashion Guatemala provides Shipping Services, as described on this page, for Guatemalan Artisans.
The services provided are for Guatemalan Artisans customers only.
Services are Provided World Wide by DHL Express.
This Website is owned by the Artisans of Guatemala.
This is an important fact for the future of Guatemalan Artisans and the Mayan Culture.
Because you will find on the Internet, on Websites in the US selling Handmade Guatemalan Artisan products that are Fakes or Knock Offs.
Photography by:
Omar Soumoza San Pedro La Laguna Lake Atitlan Guatemala.
Model:
Kaila Tzul Tzul Panajachel Solola