Narrator: This ancient tie-dyeing technique
starts with tons of tiny knots,
and it's part of a month-long process
to make just one scarf.
Mayan weavers have been using these techniques
for over 2,000 years. And in Guatemala,
groups of women have banded together to preserve
this part of their heritage
after a decades-long civil war threatened their culture.
We visited San Juan La Laguna to see how these groups
are still standing.
Normally these weavers work in their own homes,
but they came together to show us
each step of their process.
Dominga Isabel Coche Ujpan has been doing this
since she was a little girl.
It all starts with the raw cotton
that grows right here in San Juan.
Dominga picks out the seeds one by one.
Then she flattens the cotton.
Dominga uses a stick called a malacate
to pull the cotton into a thread.
It takes four days of spinning to make half a pound.
Natural dyeing is another ancient technique
they practice here.
Dominga is straining boiled banana plant stalks
to give the threads a lilac color.
She dips them into the purple dye,
and then washes them out,
before letting them hang to dry.
All the dyes here come from nature.
The weavers say some shades are even affected
by the phases of the moon.
Next, Dominga measures and counts the threads
in a process called warping.
It takes hours to layer all the strings onto the warp board.
Dominga has to know exactly what she wants the final piece
to look like so she can sort the strings accordingly.
This process is typically a woman's job.
Weaving in general has been passed down
from mother to daughter for centuries
in Indigenous communities.
Dominga learned from her mother
when she was just 12 years old.
Mayan legend has it that women in ancient times
learned to weave from the goddess Ixchel,
who is often depicted with a backstrap loom.
It's the same one these weavers work with today.
And it's ideal for weavers
like Maria Cristina Garcia Gonzalez,
who needs to work at home while taking care of the kids.
She can set it up almost anywhere,
and the shape of the loom
makes it easy for women to weave while pregnant.
Cristina learned the craft from her mother-in-law
right after getting married.
She uses her body weight to control the tension of the loom.
She takes inspiration for her designs from nature
and how she's feeling.
Woven textiles carry a deep symbolism
for Mayan people throughout Guatemala.
But wearing this traditional clothing became dangerous
during the 36-year civil war
between government military forces and leftist rebel groups.
The conflict is now considered a genocide.
200,000 Guatemalans were killed,
and most of them were Indigenous.
Women were victims of sexual violence
and lost their fathers and husbands in the fight.
The war ended in 1996,
but many indigenous women still face discrimination today.
Weaving became a way for them to show strength.
Women across the country came together to form groups,
just like this one in San Juan.
Today, it's rare to see younger men in traditional dress,
but women here wear it as a symbol of pride
and to honor their ancestors.
It's not just women in the fight.
Jhonatan Abinoel Perez Mendoza
works with the weavers group, too.
Jhonatan's specialty is jaspe, an ancient technique
only a handful of weavers in this group know how to do.
He starts by separating white threads into groups.
Then he secures the strings between two pillars.
He needs about 10 feet of space for this part.
Little by little, he begins tying knots to form a design.
It's a lot like tie-dyeing.
The threads underneath the knots will resist the dye
while the exposed parts will absorb it.
Today he's making Guatemala's national bird.
Jhonatan spends up to five hours just tying,
and that can be tough on the hands.
When the threads are dyed,
the tied parts stay completely white.
Then, other women in the group
weave Jhonatan's dyed jaspe threads into shawls
like this one, which sell for 500 quetzales, or $65 each.
Tourists are their main customers,
but many are looking for a bargain,
so it's hard for weavers to get a fair price for their work.
And sometimes, they have to sell it for cheap to locals
who resell it.
That's why they partnered with Trama Textiles in 2016.
The organization buys products from over 400 weavers
across Guatemala and sells them online
to people around the world.
And the weavers can name their price.
Instead of selling a scarf for $10 to middlemen,
they can get $16 from Trama.
But the organization is still hurting from the pandemic,
and sales have been low.
Trama can't buy any more products from Cristina's group
until it sells off its current stock.
And Cristina says it's been three months without a sale.
To make ends meet, she's been working as a housekeeper.
Still, Cristina is determined to make a name
for the weavers of San Juan.