ROCLA's February 2012 Program

Guatemala: Crafts and Resistance, Cultural Identity and Community

Wednesday, February 1, 7 PM, Downtown Presbyterian Church 121 N Fitzhugh St. Rochester

The February 1st ROCLA monthly program at DUPC will feature member Marilyn Anderson presenting Guatemala: Crafts and Resistance, Cultural Identity and Community. Marilyn has been an active ROCLA member since 1982 when she and Jon Garlock visited Chiapas and the camps of Maya refugees who had fled the violence of the civil war raging then in many parts of Guatemala.

Broad questions about crafts and resistance will be considered along with the important role of Maya women weavers. We also will consider weaving as metaphor and its everyday place in people's lives. To do this she will draw from her efforts as a photographer, artist and author. She first learned to weave on a backstrap loom in the 1960s, later moving to work on human rights issues, Fair Trade and collaborations for Maya children's crafts education.

Some of the questions she hopes to answer:

• In this globalized world, what is the place of weaving and other traditional arts in the lives of Maya peoples and other Guatemalans?
• How does globalization affect craft production? How does the political/economic situation affect weavers and other craft workers?
• What happened to weaving during the armed conflict of the 1980s?
• What is the present day role of Fair Trade, weaving and crafts?
• What is the place of crafts education for children in Guatemala?

Slide images will accompany the talk covering the 1970s and her last three Guatemala trips after 2000.

6:30 p.m. at the Downtown Presbyterian Church, 121 Fitzhugh St. Rochester.