Maria Vazquez Gomez

Maria Vazquez Gomez is forty years old. She was 27 years old when the massacre in Acteal, her home community, occurred on Dec. 22, 1997. Included in the 45 people that were killed were her husband, her mother, her sister and her son. Her nephew, orphaned by the massacre, is the same man, Manuel, left mentally stunted, whom recounted the story of the massacre to me and was able to create humor amid pain, as I recounted in a previous blog post. Left without a family, Maria has had to attend to the cafetal (coffee farm) and the milpa (the garden where maize, beans, squash and other veggies grow) by herself for the past 13 years.
After the massacre, a plethora of missionaries, NGO's, and caring individuals came into the area to provide solidarity and support. They organized a women's group, which was put in control of a small 'tienda de abarrotes,' or kind of like a corner store, and of making crafts to sell nationally and abroad to provide some extra financial assistance through the rough times. Although there were twenty women at first to help out with the cooperative store, there remains only two, Maria and another, because the rest of the women found it too difficult to balance their time between their duties at home and at the store. As fierce storms and heavy rains erode the soil on the steep cliff on which the store is perched, the floor has begun to crack and fall. The store seems truly precariously perched.


Yesterday afternoon, I had the opportunity to visit with Maria outside her store. Sitting in the shade provided by the laminate roof, she recounted to me her history, and her feelings about being involved in the cooperative Maya Vinic as a single woman. She spoke of the difficulties of producing coffee to sell - being shorter and physically weaker than a man, much of the work that her husband would have done she now has to pay workers to do. This includes clearing the brush, collecting and constructing composts for the natural fertilizer, chopping firewood with which to cook every day. Her involvement in Maya Vinic, which is committed to growing organic coffee, means using chemical fertilizer, insecticide, and herbicide to clear the land is out of the question. As most of the women have left the store cooperative, she spends much of her time there, selling pasta, snacks, drinks and any other small daily items to passer-byers on the street. This she does, constantly wondering when the floor is going to collapse and she will lose half of her store.
As I finished up my interview, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for Maria. I wondered what I could possibly do to help her situation. I have committed some time to her next week to do some work on her cafetal and chop some wood for her. In the meantime, I told her I might try to sell some of crafts that she sews and knits by hand. Below are some examples of shirts and bookmarks that Maria makes. She told me she would need around 3000 pesos to get the resources to rebuild the store. The shirt with the complex border sells for 150 pesos (US $15) (see picture, below), the one with the less complex border 100 pesos (US $10) (see picture, above); the bookmarks sell for 10 pesos (US $1) each (see picture, below). If you think you might like to purchase a shirt or bookmark, let me know and I will put in the order and bring them home with me when I come home. If purchasing a shirt, please specify whether this is for a women, man, girl, boy, baby, dog, cat. Any specific requests in color can be obliged. All is made with cotton. As the fair trade middle man, I will give absolutely all proceeds directly to Maria. For all the businessmen/women out there, I have absolutely no problem with resale - buy 100 bookmarks and sell them at a local bake sale or outside your place of worship. You can send the money via the paypal link provided on the side of my blog. Thank you for your generosity!