Two-Headed Bird Lands in Guatemala's Political Arena: Mayan Women Fight to Protect Their Textile Her
Monday, December 11, 2017
By Elizabeth Rose, Truthout | Report
A Guatemalan woman weaves textiles in the traditional way, in San Juan La Laguna -- one of the
villages on the banks of Lake Atitlan. (Photo: Phil Clarke Hill / In Pictures via Getty Images)
San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala—Ixkot, the Mayan glyph, is a double-headed bird facing both the future and the past. It has adorned the hand-woven blouses, or huipils, of Mayan women for centuries, and is now the icon of a group of Mayan weavers fighting their way into the Guatemalan political arena.
On Sunday, November 26, a group of artists calling themselves Ixkot Chi Xot (double-headed birds of Chixot) assembled in the town square in San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala, according to Amarildo Bal, a local journalist. They were there to celebrate the signing of a municipal agreement by the mayor of Comalapa acceding the collective proprietary ownership of woven designs to the town's community of weavers.
The local agreement supports national legislation introduced in May 2016 by the 1,500 members of the Asociación Femenina para el Desarrollo de Sacatepéquez, better known as AFEDES. The group petitioned the Guatemalan Constitutional Court to grant copyright protection of the intellectual property of Mayan woven designs throughout all of Guatemala.
The courts have yet to act on the national proposal, but smaller municipalities with a Mayan majority have begun their own legislative process, according to Angelina Aspuac, an AFEDES spokesperson.
More:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42844-two-headed-bird-lands-in-guatemala-s-political-arena-mayan-women-fight-to-protect-their-textile-heritage
San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala
More images of the area:
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrB8p89OS9awykAtjSJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBsZ29xY3ZzBHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEc2xrA2J1dHRvbg--;_ylc=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?gprid=yAGdB9PXSwiv9yONbieRvA&pvid=0qVikDEwLjHlO2d6WQqJMAFbMjYwMgAAAAATJMjN&p=San+Juan+Comalapa%2C+Guatemala&fr=sfp&fr2=sb-top-images.search.yahoo.com&ei=UTF-8&n=60&x=wrt#id=47&iurl=http%3A%2F%2F
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