My mother, the daughter of a skilled seamstress, and my father, the son of agricultural entrepreneurs who sold their produce across the border in the Dominican Republic, migrated to the United States in the early 1980s from Haiti.
Maya women are fighting to protect their long tradition of textile designs. In 2014, a group of Kaqchikel Maya women from the state of Sacatepéquez, which encompasses dozens of Indigenous-majority towns and hamlets, launched a political movement to regain control of the textile designs they create and produce.
Some sweatshops feel like home. At least, this is Juan’s case.
So called Panama hats were once a highlight of Ecuadorian, Peruvian and Colombian exports, but today, baskets made from the same material—iraca or toquilla straw (Carludovica palmata)—are the trendiest accessories.
Since I was very young, I always dreamed of seeing the world, though I never imagined that modeling would be the path to get there.
