D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
May
2009
Co-ops
Page: 2Janet and Our Lady of Palomas have sponsored several workshops for the women and will have more. The workshop on learning to sew with sewing machines was wildly popular, and brought several women into the group from both sides of the border. Janet has taught crocheting, and there have been guest instructors in basket-weaving and jewelry-making.
The women clearly appreciate the chance to learn. Janet would like to see some training on leadership and on working as a group.
The range of things they make is enormous, from traditionally embroidered tablecloths and placemats to barrettes and scrunchies for hair, to shoes, dresses and shawls, and jewelry and fake flowers made of seeds. (Eva's son, the only male in the group, makes these.) But production is chaotic and sprawling, and the organizers hope that market forces will eventually standardize the items somewhat.
For now the organizers marvel at the prodigious creativity and capacity for innovation of these people — inventing a new stitched design to put on the side of a purse or a new way to put binding on a dress, or any number of things.
Peter and Polly Edmunds started coming to Deming in the winters when they had their construction business in Wisconsin. During the 1990s they visited Cuernavaca several times and took part in development projects in the area. They got involved in the Desert Humanitarians project in Palomas to assist border crossers, and got to know Janet and Judith there.
They've formed an organization they call Border Partners, which they want to use to spawn various development projects. They're working toward getting non-profit status so they can apply for grants.
Peter has been giving mini-courses in Palomas on making a solar cooker that can be put together out of cardboard and tinfoil for less than $2. In late April he went to the middle school there and taught students to make the solar cooker, and has plans to go to the high school.
Polly said the idea for Aprons and More sprang from a conversation she had with Ivonne Romero at the Pink Store in Palomas. Ivonne, who owns the famous store with her husband Sergio, was the one who suggested using the bright-colored oilcloth used for tablecloths in Mexico. Polly suggested making "aprons, or something," she recalled. "The Pink Store sells a lot of our stuff," Polly added.
Aprons and More started out as part of the original cooperative of 2006, but has now split off on its own. In November last year there were two members, or employees, but now there are eight, and they're maintaining it at that number until they grow. Polly explained, "We're taking it step by step."
It's more of a real business than the Cooperativa, but still has a collective feel. Members all plan together which things they're going to make the following week, and they split up the proceeds equally, which usually run from $30 to $40 a week. They get along very well together. It appears the decisions are genuinely made by consensus.
Every week they bring in new things they have learned to make. Besides the adult aprons and adorable little kids' aprons, they make handbags in many styles out of the same fruit-and-flower design material, for which they are still creating new ways to put pockets inside and out. They make placemats, tablecloths, zipper bags and seat covers.
But Polly and Peter see more things to do beyond what they're doing now.
"The citizens of Palomas are creative, they're industrious, but lack opportunities to pursue their best interests," Peter said. "There are 40 or 50 highly skilled workers down there [laid off from a furniture factory], used to doing very precise work cutting, forming, fitting and finishing. Solar cookers — they'd be duck soup for them to make.
"There is something special going on in Palomas," he went on. "I can feel it in my bones. The pieces of the puzzle are coming together in such special ways."
After their Wednesday meeting, the whole co-op went out to lunch, as they plan to do every quarter. Polly told the women how much they mean to her, and someone in the group returned the compliment.
Polly's plan is for the business to become worker-owned, whenever they are ready. You can feel their eagerness to take on the responsibility for the business.
"Somos un equipo! (We're a team)" Polly said, raising her fist and smiling. They're all in agreement on this.
Contributions for the hungry in Palomas can be sent to Maria Lopez/DIF, c/o Desert Exposure, PO Box 191, Silver City, NM 88062.