What convinced you of the market viability of the products under
Ponchos Rojas? What do you think is the most distinctive characteristic
of your products?
We believe that there is always a market for traditional, sustainable
handmade products that tell a history about a place but also have a twist of
modernization in the design. Especially now that everything is made “fast”,
and as a result, there is a huge textile waste. For us it really comes down to
two things: quality and giving back.
When something is made with care by hand, and you can feel that quality
with your own hands, people can tell and want a part of it. Also, when
products are responsibly sourced, and you give people a chance to support a
good cause, most jump at the chance.
Clockwise, from bottom left:
The Mollo's challa burning
ceremony; Mollo hermanas at
work; Weaving under the heat
of the Andean sun
How has the Mollo community reacted to your admirable initiative?
Overall, everyone is excited to be working with us because it gives the
women an extra income that will help them and their families.
We did a blessing ceremony with the community when we first started,
where we burned a challa (an Andean burning ritual) as an offering to
Pachamama and to commemorate a successful collaboration between us
and the community. We also shared an ajtapi, which is an Andean sort of
Thanksgiving where food and drinks are shared in picnic style with friends
and family.
We are also working with another community in the north of the Potosi
district called Livichuco, where the whole process of the making of the textiles
―from sourcing the wool from the llamas and alpacas, to dying the wool the
natural way, to weaving on a ground loom―is done the traditional way.
95