5. From South to North

From South to North

Within the strategies to generate networking with the different native groups of Mexico, Fundacion MARSO and Enasamble Artesano consolidated an alliance to weave the networks of artisan techniques and knowledge. In this room, alongside the textile work of the Raramuri, there is a selection of different examples of wool weaving that come from different regions such as San Juan Chamula, Chiapas and Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca in the southern region of Mexico.

With this exhibition the use of the raw material (wool) throughout Mexico becomes evident, such connection involves adaptation of the herds to different ecosystems and geographical situations. The intersection of knowledge between “the men with winged feet” or Raramuri, the Zapotecs and the Chamulas can be seen in their craftsmanship, showing that support prevails over competition. In Mexico artisan communities create both, utilitarian and ornamental products that take sustainable  advantage of all what nature has to offer.

Artisan Ensemble – MARSO Foundation

4. Sheep to Blanket

From the Sheep to the Blanket

During August 2021, the project “From the sheep to the blanket” began in collaboration with INLAND-Campo Adentro, the Center for Alternative Indigenous Development (Cedain) and the Union of Rarámuri Artisans. It is a productive and collective-collaborative intervention project that intends to rescue the traditional Rarámuri blanket and its meanings. 

With the work that was done in stage 1 of this project, different axes of collaboration were determined, such as the need to insert better sheep, the creation of strategies to improve breeding practices and the genetics of the herds; thus responding to an interest of the female shepherds interviewed, who expressed their will of achieving a greater wool production of better quality. 

The modification in the basic supply of textile production strengthens the next link in the project, which is the caring of the heard, improving processing and spinning of the wool techniques, as well as acheiving equitable distribution among the different families and community looms.

With these projects we seek to generate a synergy between the dynamics of circular economy and ecological sustainability in the region, rescuing textile weaving techniques, disseminating the symbolic importance of traditional weaving and finding new marketing channels for products through fair exchange dynamics. The main goal is that the community will always be the one that benefits the most.

3. Rarámuri walking house of knowledge

Rarámuri walking house of knowledge

First part: Loom of ideas

This project is part of a collaboration with Inland- Campo Adentro (based in various parts of Spain) that seeks to approach the Rarámuri community to promote processes of knowledge composition and enhancement of their ancestral culture, as well as forms of concrete support and empowering. 

Initially, the result of the field research carried out in 2020 and the collection of archive materials initiated an online digital exhibition device, as a virtual meeting space and map of references with milestones that will articulate the work proposal on the territory for a later project phase.

1. Historiogram

This online sample is situated halfway between a map and a historical graphic. It was thought to be like landmarks of a nomadic route or knots of a loom. 

Ideas, concepts and places are intertwined and work as context to situate the non-profit working team, as well as to lay the base line for an agro-ecological revitalization and a circular economy project that will lead to the second part of the project entitled Rarámuri Knowledge Walking House.

We appreciate the contributions of representatives of the communities of Repechique, Mogotavo, San Ignacio Arareko, Gonogochi and Norogachi, Sabina Aguilera, Luly Sosa, Secretary of Culture of the State of Chihuahua and DALSA S.A. DE C.V., CEDAIN, CONTEC, FODARCH, Alianza Sierra Madre, Rapramuri, Teresa Gonzalez, Adolfo and Sofia Fierro.

INLAND- Marso Foundation

2 About the Rarámuri

2  About the Rarámuri

The Rarámuri are a group of native people of the Sierra Madre Occidental of about 85,000 individuals settled, mainly, in the region known as Sierra Tarahumara of Chihuahua, in the northern part of Mexico. Its history is one of resistance against different moments of plunder from the colonialism of the 16th century to the present day when it continues to operate in various forms, such as the extension of drug trafficking gangs that impose their law and illegally exploit the forests. 

Faced with these situations, the Rarámuri have opted for strategies to defend their culture, which values silence and isolation in the remotest reaches of the Copper Canyon. Thus, they strive to preserve their ceremonial dances, their rich cosmology, their titanic running races, self-government structures, artisan techniques, traditional agricultural and grazing practices, and their ancestral language. All this framed in a belief of the existence of an unbreakable continuous line that unites the human being with nature and the universe. In this way, they advance collectively to maintain a way of life and shape a vision of the future that we cannot afford to lose.