My First Guatemalan Blanket, 1977—I purchased this in the marketplace in Chichicastenango to help stay warm at night while sleeping on the dirt floor of an adobe house in the highlands. I was part of a team of architecture students from U.C. Berkeley participating in the reconstruction process after the devastating 1976 earthquake. Using indigenous materials and methods that withstood earthquake conditions in other parts of the country, we rebuilt the school and several homes with the participation of all the able bodied men in the community. The men had never seen women working on a construction site before, let alone wearing pants!!
This was the beginning of my love affair with Mayan textiles and I have continued to collect, wear and share these beautiful, colorful works, crafted on back strap and treadle looms.