Scenic El Salvador... taken from top of San Salvador volcano
A peaceful country scene in El Salvador
A shady public park in San Salvador
There are many shaded streets in the cities...
...and bucolic scenes in the country. But most of the people who live in this beautiful place earn less than $2 a day.
Many people get around by sharing space in pick-up trucks (this one is taking fruits to market, too). The most common "taxis" are pick-ups with space in back for people to stand or sit.
Most people get around by walking. (Note the scattered trash in this public park: unfortunately, trash is very common-- everywhere!)
A quiet residential street in Santa Ana
A typical residential street in the city; entrances are through private, locked gates, for security.
We see most of the countryside by car. The vegetation most everywhere is lush and green.
Rural homes often have locked gates to small compounds
A few private gates, seen in passing
Tires are stacked outside this rural automotive shop
Our car had stopped at a construction light, allowing this still shot of a rural home. This is more typical of the majority of homes in the countryside.
When we go to El Salvador, much of our time each day is taken up meeting with artisans.
We get to see where they work...
...in many parts of the country.
We meet with the artisans of coops
...and meet members of their families.
Hot baby! Her crib was next to her grandmother's loom.
Grandmother and granddaughter
Two women who work in a sewing coop in Las Flores
This daughter of a "Taller Jaragua" member in Tonacatepeque is excited about books donated to their future community library! The Jaragua members have been working toward educating their children by providing English lessons (led by a teacher from CIS, the Community for Exchange and Solidarity, in San Salvador) and ongoing efforts to build the library.
An artisan in her San Salvador shop shows us some of her new products
Mario makes Revy's "revved up" recycled tire inner-tube products in his workshop.
Some of the members of the Jaragua coop, who make products of coconut for Revy-- the unique coconut coin purse, earrings, and a whole-coconut purse. This picture was taken at a meeting where we were talking over details of the products they make, with the help of a translator.
Our translators are critical to Revy's business! Here, Francisco explains something on one of our publications to the woman who makes Revy's fishscale jewelry.
Andrea translates details of design for Ron and Mario.
Francisco explains desired product changes to Pazita, a member of the El Mezote coop.
Antonia translates for our meeting with the Jaragua coop.
Now, a short tour with us, to some of the El Salvadoran coops we visit, to see and discuss their products.
This woman embroiders bright floral designs on her handbags.
We took a shot of this design, and talked with her about modifications for the U.S. market (such as adding a shoulder strap, and maybe using a more natural, undyed fabric).
At the "Taller Susana Las Flores," one of the women demonstrates their weaving, still done on working looms of ancient design.
She pauses to smile for the camera! -- but it is hard and laborious work to create their colorful fabrics for the handbags they sew here.
A photo is snapped to remind us of design possibilities. We are trying to help them find workable alternatives to the hard plastic handle, like that on the bag to the right. The fringe on this orange and blue bag is a nice touch, too.
We get out Revy's "revved up" shoulder pouch to discuss size, and look at colors to consider. We like the shades of reds on their bag shown to the rear.
Across the square at another coop in Las Flores, we look at some intricate silk-screen designs. We order the new Revy-logo coin purse from this coop before we leave, and plan to work with them more, soon, to make silk-screened handbags.
The silk-screened designs require a lot of scissors work, at this stage. This young woman works with the silk-screen coop in Las Flores.
On the afternoon of the same day, we stop at the Teshuktik coop and are given a demonstration of the dying process involved in creating the unique fabrics for their handbags. Here, she shows us some of the different leaves she uses to make one of the dyes, in the dishpan on the left side of the table. The right-hand dishpan contains a solution of diluted milk. The diluted milk conditions the fabric to accept the dye.
Saturating the fabric with the diluted milk. After the fabric is completely dry again, she will twist and tie it before dying it in the color.
Rust is plentiful! and is used with the plant materials to create some of her unique colors. Every batch of dye is different!
Here she is waiting for our translator to tell us what she has described. She is holding her newest design, a handbag with fringe.
Ron's note reads: "Photo for color. Twisted design." At the Teshuktik workshop.
On another day, we drove over four hours to the Morazón district, in the east of the country. Maria La Paz, called "Pazita," poses with her coop's wares in their shop.
More of the woven bags in the El Mezote coop's shop, in Morazón.
Comparing for size with the rubber shoulder bag.
Pazita points out the plant from which they get the fibers to weave their handbags: the maguey.
The humble maguey, source of weaving fibers for the El Mezote coop.
The El Mezote women have set up a display to show us, of their new bean jewelry designs.
El Mezote bean jewelry, new design. The man and car in the background were our travelling companions.
Pazita holds a new design.
On our way back to San Salvador, we pass through Guatajiagua, stopping at a coop that works with a special black clay. The women have gone home for the day, but one of the men who teaches pottery there shows us around. This is an oven where they fire the clay pots, vases and other objects the women create.
I took this photo from a poster in the pottery coop's workshop, showing how they get their special clay from a nearby riverbank.
The pottery teacher gave us a demonstration, using his foot-propelled wheel. He had already cut the bowl in the background from the top of the same clay piece he is now shaping into a fluted vase.
Closeup of throwing a pot. This workshop is an "Escuela-Taller," a school-workshop for the local women who come here.
One of the women here designs and makes jewelry that combines the black clay she shapes, with dried and treated red-snapper fishscales she purchases from a workshop on the coast. This is a new design she came to show us.
We watched her add links of chain to one of the fishscale necklaces we currently buy from her.
Her daughter is watching closely!
Closeup of her work on the necklace.
Done!
On another day, we drove west from the capital, through the La Libertad region to the countryside around the city of Santa Ana. Here, Alma "de Añil" and her husband run a large farm compound where their organic indigo is grown, harvested and the dye is extracted.
Ron reaches down to touch a tiny young indigo plant. When ready for harvest, the shrub stands taller than a man.
Ron and Alma discuss the indigo farm, which is wholly certified organic by Öko-Garantie of Germany.
A worker on the farm dyes an article of indigo clothing for Alma's shop.
Freshly-dyed indigo clothing drying in the (still-hot) shade.
Ron & Mary get some local refreshment: coconut milk! (Thank you, Alma!)
We then visited Alma's workshop in the city of Santa Ana. This is a product display there.
Finished handbags hang in storage.
A seamstress at Alma's shop pauses for a photo.
This young woman works closely with Alma on her new designs.
New designs she shows us... pricing can get complicated; these bags use palm mats woven in another region of El Salvador.
Ron decides to add this coin purse to Revy's line; a photo to remember it, for ordering.
A new design of Alma's, with a half-leather front.
This soft-handle bag could function as a shopping bag-- but does it cost too much for that, after shipping, duty, etc.? Much to consider.
A new color! "Made from crushed bugs who live on cactus plants," they tell us. We are intrigued. (This is Alma's mother, who works with her at the shop.)
Another color possibility from the "bug dye." Unfortunately, Alma later finds her source for the color is gone. We are disappointed, too.
Back in the capital, we stop at the home of jewelry artisan, Francisco.
Francisco shows us some of his new designs and products. We look them over, drawn especially to those of all-natural materials. (Yes, our new volcanic rock set is in front, here.)
We ask him to make these for us. Lava: very neat, and different.
We are always looking for new ideas for products. Here, Iris, one of the designers who works with Aid to Artisans (a Millenium Project-sponsored organization in San Salvador), shows us a new bag made from recycled banners. (Yes, we ordered them, & have them in our line now!)
Another idea ATA has been working on with different coops: weaving recycled paper into usable products.
One of our suppliers shows us this beautiful multistrand necklace of seeds. (Unfortunately, it's also very expensive to make, ship and import. But we keep its style in mind...)
Bright orange and brown seeds! Different! How experimental can we afford to get? We weigh the options: perhaps someday, when Revy is better-established...
We cannot leave El Salvador without acknowleding some of its horrible struggles... The plaque below the silhouettes reads, "They are not dead, they are with us, with you and with all of humanity."
We stop at a museum of the 1980-1992 revolution.
These rocks and rough planks mark where the revolutionaries held their top-level meetings, during the war.
We have seen other vestiges of the revolution's violence. These holes, in what was an upper-level room in a house, are from automatic gunfire from helicopters.
In the village of El Mezote, 900 people-- men, women and children-- were killed by government troops in one of the war's worst massacres.
We are looking into a garden memorial to the children who were killed in the El Mezote massacre.
It's a colorful wall... the children's spirits float upward
...while the tablets below list their names and ages. These, shown, are of some of the youngest children killed here.
...and some even younger.
These pavers remain from the building where the children were shot and killed. Blood stains baked into the clay tiles when government troops burned it behind them.
The women of the El Mezote coop maintain these memorial gardens with their earnings and other donations. Pazita, on the left, was a young girl when the massacre occurred here. All of her siblings died, including her pregnant, married sister, who died here next to her 4-year-old son. Pazita was with her parents, away picking coffee in another region of the country. They did not return here for some time after that.
This memorial wall stands in a central park of San Salvador. The names of over 30,000 people killed during the revolution are inscribed here.
Translation: "Among the thirty thousand names carved on this monument to memory and truth are not inscribed the names of thousands of civilian casualties that never came to be known. To all of them is devoted this space as a tribute of respect and admiration. Their name is fatherland."
Translation: "Monument to the memory and the truth. In December 2003 was inaugurated the first recording of 25,965 names of Salvadoran men and women who were civilian victims of human rights violations, providing thousands of mothers and families a place to remember and pay tribute to their loved ones. Today we inaugurate the second phase with the incorporation of 3,169 new names of people killed and vanished who gave their lives to build a more just and equitable society. We honor their memory and we work to build a country with dignity, justice and truth. March 15, 2008."
These tablets list, by years, the locations of massacres.
The small Catholic chapel where Bishop Romero was assassinated while he was serving communion on March 24, 1980.
The altar of the chapel. Bishop Romero was killed here.
Ron in the chapel. Now I wish I had written down the inscription on the wall behind the altar (placed after Bishop Romero's murder), which called for peace.
Photos of Bishop Romero, mounted on the wall in the chapel.
A brief summary of his life
In summary: We at Revy Fair Trade will continue to talk to and work with El Salvadoran artisans...
...and visit them in their workshops...
...to bring their handiwork to market
...to help them create a better life by their work
...and we will keep listening! ~ Ron & Mary
We hope on a future trip to see the roofless structure behind us here in Tonatacapeque with members of the Taller Jaragua, transformed into a functional community library!
Translation: "El Salvador always waits for you with open arms. Bon voyage! And come back soon!"
...And so we return to Ohio, where we take photos of newly-arrived product from El Salvador (here: Jaragua's coconut purse).
Our goal is to help El Salvador's craftspeople gain new markets for their work-- whether it be jewelry...
More jewelry: the Pacun Seed necklace, created by the Taller 18 de Marzo in the village of Papaturro.
... or handbags! (These are the shoulder pouch and coin purse crafted by Mario in his Santa Ana workshop.)
Necklace of pacun and coquita seeds, created by the women of Taller La Mora Jicambu.
Matching bracelet. Very cool.
Both this bracelet -- of coconut disks laced with palm leaves -- and the perky pink-painted coconut earrings are handcrafted products of Taller Jovenes Esperanza. (Their name means "Young Hope")
Palm-size! The whole-coconut purse (lined with muslin fabric) from Taller Jaragua of Tonacatapeque. (Wasn't all the negotiating worth it?)
Same workshop; their coconut coin purse. Happy to eat your change.
Here is the new fringe bag from Teshuktik, the workshop led by the woman who demonstrated her dying technique for us.
One of our first woven-paper items, created from the recycled "ends" of paper rolls where a printer tests colors. These come from a new coop brought on board by the Aid to Artisans organization in El Salvador. Made by the same people who weave palm mats as floor-coverings. Except they only make $1 for selling the palm floor mat, and it takes two days to weave it: Highly UN-fair trade! The woven-paper cosmetic bag line ATA helped them with may not work as a woven-paper item, but as woven palm... We will continue to work on developing this product.
Very cool shape! See our note on the previous slide...
One of Francisco's first designs, of turquoise, with an as-yet-unidentified seed and metal beads originally translated as "pewter," but which may actually be tin.
Mario's very popular "Revved Up Tire Hobo"
To the market: an early trade show display (we still have the indigo items, hobo tire bag, and the light blue and lime bag of recycled leather (another Mario product), but a number of these items here are now discontinued or are on clearance, as we "tweak" the line...
Here is our recent booth at the Philadelphia Gift Show, late July 2010.
The handbags on this side of the display emphasize RECYCLED: the recycled innertube line of products, then the lightweight recycled-plastic handbags (containing 80 recycled plastic bags each!), then the recycled banner bags in the back. We moved the recycled leather bags to a position between the innertube and plastic-bag lines, after this picture was taken.
The "all-natural" side of our display: the natural-dye handbags, indigo line, small woven maguey (sisal) bag; note the fishscale necklace in center front, plus all the other seed and bean necklaces and earrings.
Led by our top-selling recycled innertube handbags...
...they all do show well, and can *begin* to show American consumers what El Salvador is capable of producing.
