368 UNIT 3 MODERN MESOAMERICA
Box 9.5 Indigenous Production for TouristsThroughout Mesoamerica tourism has become an important part of local and national economies,
some years generating more revenue than traditional plantation agriculture (coffee, sugar cane,
cotton): newer nontraditional agricultural crops (broccoli and snow peas): and maquiladoras,
which assemble clothes and electronics. Who reaps the most economic benefits from tourism
varies greatly. In Mexico and Guatemala, tourists drawn to pre-Columbian archaeological sites
tend to spend most of their money paying for pricey international chain hotels and meals in
restaurants that few locals can afford. This practice generates vast sums of money for the gov-
ernment, which collects taxes from the businesses, the international hotel chains, and local elites
that tend to provide services to the tourists.
Indigenous artisans and vendors have carved out a niche in the tourism sector by market-
ing handicrafts. Most of their products are based on designs that have been passed on for cen-
turies. Weavers in Oaxaca, Chiapas, and highland Guatemala reproduce traditional designs,
while continually developing new products that appeal to the changing whims of their tourist
customers. Only a relatively few indigenous artisans and merchants earn enough money to pur-
chase such items as automobiles, but many make modest livings. This income makes them eco-
nomically more secure than most of their neighbors who work in agriculture.
For nearly 100 years, Kaqchikel Mayan weaver-vendors in San Antonio Aguas Calientes and
neighboring Santa Catarina Barahona (Guatemala) have devised successful strategies to create
new textiles and market them to tourists. One such family of weavers negotiated with the
Guatemalan national tourism organization and larger tour companies to bring tourists to their
home for weaving demonstrations. Another family visited Spanish-language schools in Antigua
and Guatemala City, inviting students to visit their home to learn weaving, make tortillas, and eat
pepian,a stew made with roasted tomatoes and chili peppers. Women in these households draw
on traditional practices like weaving and special foods to attract customers to their hand-woven
textiles.
In the previously mentioned communities, others have imitated both families’ successes.
Other weavers sell their textiles in a beautiful Spanish colonial-style marketplace in the San An-
tonio plaza. The marketplace and plaza were completely renovated between 1998 and 2003 by
the local government because the mayor knew that a more attractive town center would attract
more international tourists. Many other weaver-vendors from these towns travel to nearby Antigua,
where they sell in marketplaces, on the streets, and in small boutiques that specialize in Mayan
handicrafts. A few take their goods to Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Mexico, and the United
States.
These vendors, largely comprising of women, have a great deal of autonomy in develop-
ing new textile designs that locals and tourists recognize as traditional. One could regard this con-
stant innovation with cynicism, because clothing styles and textiles for tourists do not remain the
same over time. Such tinkering with textile designs, be they directed to tourists or local Kaqchikel
consumers, frustrates textile collectors, but it also illustrates the creativity of these women to
keep up with trends and to figure out ways to attract local and international customers. Although
these women have international clientele and sometimes travel between their hometowns and
other countries, their mode of production is the household. It is there that they weave and con-
ceive of new strategies to sell textiles and entertain tourists. While they carry out these economic
activities, their sons and husbands are tending small milpas or growing nontraditional crops.
Other family members may work in maquilas, as carpenters, as teachers, and in other forms of
labor. Despite the diversity of employment, many still hold fast to a peasant, or household-based
mode of production. Even though few families subsist on agriculture alone, the milpa and the con-
sumption of maize continues to be an important part of their diet and identity, alongside the
production of ”typical” textiles.