A Visit to Grupo Cajolá

By guest contributor Luisa Paulino

In this month’s blog post Luisa, a recent visitor to Cajolá, describes her experience:

Our trip to Guatemala was a wonderful mixture of awe-inspiring volcanoes, zigzagging mountainous roads, alluring sunsets, and stunning views. All of these filled our hearts with reverence for nature. Towards the end of our trip, we were blessed to have the opportunity to visit Grupo Cajolá. It was a heartwarming and inspiring experience to see the commitment of so many dedicated people, from New Jersey to Cajolá, working together for the betterment of their community. 

Cajolá is a rural municipality in the highlands of Quetzaltenango composed mostly of indigenous people whose native language is Mam and who before the work of Grupo Cajolá saw immigration as its only option. Now thanks to the work being done by this community group, members of this marginalized community are being educated, becoming economically more stable and empowered. This is especially true of its women who hold leadership positions in the board of directors and in the various projects that form part of the group’s work.

Grupo Cajolá is supported by a group of people from New Jersey (Grupo Cajolá in North America), where financial resources are generated through various funding activities. We had heard of the work of this collective from our friends Marina and Diana. Marina is part of the board of directors in Cajolá and Diana is on the board of directors in New Jersey. But we realized that their descriptions had fallen short when we were able to visit the site and witness the magnificent work being done there. We would like to thank Josias, the Coordinator of Grupo Cajolá in Cajolá, for his accompaniment.

We visited the after-school program and were quite impressed and pleased with the dignified education offered there. Instead of the devaluing and assimilating instruction offered in public schools, these settings use a pedagogy that upholds their values, culture and language creating a strong sense of identity, cooperation and responsibility for their environment.

We visited two open-room buildings that served as classrooms for primary school students; one building hosted 4 classes and the other 3. Three or four mixed-classrooms sharing open space requires a lot of respect, cooperation, and concentration regardless of the number of students per class. The classes are small, about 10 students or less, which ensures that each student gets personalized attention and can develop more. (This is often not the case in public schools where they often get lost, lose interest and leave school.) Some of the classes were doing math while others were working on language skills, the two academic areas emphasized in the after-school programs. Another was working on building self-esteem by recognizing and sharing positive self attributes. In each classroom the students are responsible for its maintenance; they do the cleaning and care for the plants thereby teaching responsibility for their environment.  The fact that the program is having a positive impact and effect on the community is evident in the increased interest parents show in the program and in their willingness to let their children participate in it instead of insisting in that they work or help out at home.

Another project hosted by Grupo Cajolá that we were able to visit was the Maya Mam Weavers where women who were previously unemployed have learned to sew and weave on a foot loom, and have also learned business skills. In so doing they have created income for themselves. They purchase yarn to weave the fabrics. They weave the fabrics on the traditional backstrap loom or on a foot loom that was introduced by the Spanish in the 16^th century. The colors and designs of the fabrics have been developed by them, through tradition, through classes, and through collaborations. The fabrics are then used to make a variety of products from scarves, handbags, table linens, to kitchen linens such as pot holders, etc. which are sewn on industrial sewing machines. These products are then passed on to quality control, where they are inspected, washed and ironed and are then ready to sell on markets both in Guatemala and in the United States. This is a truly empowering initiative that provides them with a variety of skills, independence and economic growth, a true benefit to them and their community.

Since these women came to work with their young children who were not school age yet, Grupo Cajolá saw the necessity to provide care for these children and created a pre-school where these women could leave their children, thus creating another initiative and support for the community.

Besides the pre-school, they have also created a library and an egg farm but we were unable to visit these initiatives due to time constraints. Even though we were unable to see everything, what we saw filled our hearts with hope in humanity. We are very grateful for the experience and hope to visit again.