Artistas Unidas de Limay

      Instead of doing a workshop with youth I opted to work with a group of five women who are all local artisans while I was in San Juan de Limay. Teodora Quintero, Isabel Lopez, and Dominga Oido, are ceramists from a nearby rural community called Calero; while Norgelis Tercero Alfaro and Isabel Alfaro, work with Marmolina and live in the town of Limay. Together we worked to organize a collective, called Artistas Unidas de Limay.  It has been a lot of work but I feel good about the work we have all collectively done, particularly with the language barrier. I sure tried to communicate; however languages were never my strong suite. Together, we worked on numerous projects such a brochure and a Facebook page. Collectively we produced numerous important documents such as a list of rules/by laws for the collective, the responsibilities of each member, and financial documents showing costs of materials per year and projected sales goals. Things pertaining to money where particularly challenging to figure out, as the women have never calculated the expenses of materials or how much they make in a year. This is further amplified, as there are no banks in Limay so keeping track of money and expenses is something that these women are not use to even in daily life.  Perhaps, one of the biggest discussions that was made was that 10% from every sale will go into a collective fund, this will allow the women to buy supplies in the future, this will allow them to save and have money to plan ahead for large purchases.  

                                                                                                                                                                  

At the Fiesta on 7/27/2014

I said my good byes to the women on Sunday after our fiesta celebrating the completion of the mural and all workshops. It was bitter sweet; I plan to keep in touch with the younger women who are technologically savvy. However, I realized some of the older members I may never see again. I appreciate the time they spent with me and hope they are successful as selling jewelry and decorative items is challenging in a country with a stagnant economy. My hope is that they get their items to places tourists visit so they can sell their wares for a price that will pay them a deserving wage. 

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