CRAFTS FROM SAN JUAN LA LAGUNA IN CASA SANTO DOMINGO

In January 2006, from 7 to 30, in Hotel Casa Santo Domingo of Antigua Guatemala, textile crafts and paintings of San Juan La Laguna will be exhibited. The sale income of this products will go directly to their producers.

San Juan La Laguna is a maya tzutuhil town located in the south west of Lake Atitlán. It is particularly known due to its textile weavings and its paintings. Textile are made from two different sources: quemical painting of threads brought from Totonicapán and Salcajá, and natural cotton tinted with vegetal colors.

In San Juan there are four textile associations. There, every woman child from six years on knows how to weave. They do not use any patron or guide. It is a family acquired ability, progressively developed. Lastly, weavers are testing with new designs and color combinations, in response to tourists and buyers from different countries.

Regarding painting, In San Juan there is a dozen of artists. Their common ground is the style known as naïf or primitivist, characterized by the representation of regional scenes with vivid plane colors. Some of them have participated in national and international exhibits. One woman from this town, Angelina Quic, is a paintor too. She works based in the bird eye style. In that way she projects local scenes from a curious and unfrequent point of view.

Painters of San Juan will be present with their work in this exhibit and sale event in Casa Santo Domingo. This is the second time such activity takes place and this time it has a particular purpose: to help a community affected by Stan torment.

The activity is organized jointly by Eco hotel Uxlabil Atitlán, located precisely in San Juan La Laguna, and Hotel Casa Santo Domingo, as part of their effort to serve community.