{"id":16073,"date":"2025-02-03T08:22:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T13:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=16073"},"modified":"2025-02-03T14:08:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T19:08:23","slug":"womens-weaving-collective-brings-mayan-art-to-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2025\/02\/03\/womens-weaving-collective-brings-mayan-art-to-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Weaving Collective Brings Mayan Art to Campus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From Oct. 17\u201331, the Department of History and Longyear Museum of Anthropology welcomed artists from Jalabil, a women\u2019s weaving collective in Chiapas, Mexico, for a two-week residency. During this time, the visiting artists \u2014 Teresa G\u00f3mez S\u00e1ntiz, Anal\u00ed G\u00f3mez S\u00e1ntiz, and Consuela S\u00e1ntiz G\u00f3mez \u2014 shared their textiles, language, and culture with the Colgate community.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Tseltal language, \u201cJalabil\u201d means \u201cweaving,\u201d an art form that the women of Jalabil practice using traditional Maya designs and techniques. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a roundtable discussion held in the Center for Women\u2019s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Teresa explained the origins of the collective, which was founded in 2014. \u201cWhen we were girls, weaving was sort of like playing,\u201d she said, adding that it was also a way to clothe themselves. But when the women first coalesced into a collective to sell their textiles, they encountered obstacles. \u201cIf we really wanted to sell our products, we needed to be willing to travel,\u201d she realized, since the collective could not command fair prices at local tourist sites. It wasn\u2019t until Teresa began traveling to other parts of Mexico, such as expo events and markets in Mexico City, that the women of Jalabil began to find a better market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor of History Rachel Newman first met Teresa in 2007, when Newman was an undergraduate at Yale. During a summer research project in Chiapas, she was connected with Teresa to coordinate a language exchange \u2014 but the two soon became friends, desiring to continue their interactions in Spanish instead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we met, I hoped that one day I could be a professor, and perhaps if I could achieve that dream, that it would be possible to invite Teresa and other artists to whatever campus I ended up at as guests,\u201d says Newman. In 2022, when she was hired at Colgate, Newman connected with Rebecca Mendelsohn, curator of the Longyear Museum, to begin a collaboration for Jalabil\u2019s residency. The team had support from many co-sponsors, including the Colgate Arts Council, the ALANA Cultural Center, the W.M. Keck Center for Language Study, and the Department of Africana and Latin American Studies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several of the artists\u2019 works have since become part of the Longyear Museum\u2019s permanent collection, including a special donation made during a weaving demonstration: one of their looms. The loom is large, \u201cseveral yards long, composed of a long collection of parallel threads that form the weft,\u201d explains Darwin Rodriguez, museum operations manager. Using the apparatus, the artists align and design their textiles by hand, using wooden tools to pull them taut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the conclusion of the residency, Newman is grateful for the friendship she formed in Chiapas and its impact. \u201cOn a personal level, this is the thing I\u2019ve been involved with professionally that means the most to me,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd bringing artists like the members of Jalabil to our campus is absolutely essential to making Colgate a globalized place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The exhibition, which runs from Feb. 7\u2013May 2, is curated by 10 students in MUSE 300. Showcasing works from the Longyear\u2019s basket and world textile collections, it takes a comparative view of textiles from around the world. Ultimately, this exhibition aims to inspire viewers to consider the benefits of handcrafted works. It features several new acquisitions, including three new works acquired from the Jalabil Maya women\u2019s weaving collective during their artist residency last fall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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