“One year in high school, I was taking this class, and we went over this single paragraph of Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers. My grandparents were farmworkers, so I was really excited to see it, especially in a community where I felt so alone. I grew up in Iowa, and was maybe one out of four Latino students in a graduating class of 500. So after that, I decided to pursue a degree in Chicano Studies at UTEP. I was 18 the first time I moved to El Paso.
Growing up, my family moved around a lot within the Midwest too, so there wasn't a lot of cultural items saved or passed down. Sarape blankets were the main item that everybody had, they were easy to bring back and forth, and I just loved how they looked. So it’s been my goal to make one. But it still took me a long time before I actually started weaving.
I was accepted to this Borderland Restoration field school, about ecology along the Borderlands. There wasn't going to be a lot of cell service or internet. So I thought, I'm gonna finally buy a loom. Depending on the loom and materials, it can be really costly. So for my first loom I picked a small wooden one, the size of a credit card. I went to Savers, and I bought a bunch of random yarn for maybe $2. And since that time, I've just been weaving almost every single day.
Back in Iowa now, I spend half my time weaving full time, and the other half doing a lot of agriculture related jobs. During the planting season, I feel I can experiment weaving larger pieces because there’s not the stress of relying solely on sales. I have a poncho that I just made for myself, but it took over 30 hours to do, so if I were to sell it, I’d have to find the right value and market.
At the moment a lot of my stuff is at @aghaahatco in El Paso. I’ll fulfill some of her custom hatband orders, and I’ll also make my own and sell those as well. I’ve been making shoelaces, earrings.. even miniature sarapes. I think I like variety, mainly.😄
- @___bvaz___
