(VIDEO) Q&A With Our Indigenous Wayuu Artisan: Rosa   "You're giving work to over 150 female Artisans with stable and fairtrade income. This is so great! This is exactly what we are all about. It is a business that is run by women and for women. So I want to give a shout out to all of you in the company and thank you for what you are doing. And I want to tell all of my fans to please check them out. <…> Let's support these women because not only is it amazing what they are doing, but it's just the right way to make business." Guys, I am so thrilled to be sharing these news with you. And I wanted to let you know that it is thanks to you that this has happened and that we are able to continue doing the work that we do. (VIDEO) A Day In The Life Of A Wayuu Artisan So thank you again to our beautiful Wayuu princess and to all of you for continuously choosing Lombia.    

We're always talking about the value of Wayuu bags but for the first time, we wanted you to meet one of our many artisans through a short Q&A. Many artisans are quite shy, but Rosa dressed up for the occasion and let me ask her a few questions. Find out she began crocheting, what crocheting means to the women of this tribe and what is the curious mask on her face. I hope you enjoy the short interview! TRANSLATES TRANSCRIPT Q: How did you learn to crochet? R: I began crocheting a very long time ago, since I was about 5 or 7 years old. I started crocheting by watching, and I simply observed. I also started coming to Riohacha to sell the bags my family made. And that's how I started being an artisan. By watching other women sell and crochet. Q: What is the mask you have on? R: Wayuu woman use this to cover their faces and to protect them from the sun. It also removes sunspots. This powder comes from a tree that can be found by the edge of the river. You take the fruit from the tree and keep it in a jar and apply it to your face. I don't know the name of this fruit in Spanish but in Wayuunaiki it's called Mashuka. Q: What changes have you seen since working with us? R: The change has been for the better because I don't have to look for customers to buy from me and I can work and crochet with one person only. Inside every bag there is a dream for which I am crocheting. Other female artisans crochet to feed their children. As I don't have children, I crochet to get ahead and pay for my studies. Q: What would you like people to know? That they value craftsmanship and work of us artisans. Many bargain, forcing us to live in miserable conditions. I don't feel this is fair, that the work of an artisan is poorly paid. Q: Are you the head of your household? R: Well in my case, as I'm a single woman and I don't have any attachment or children, I work to sustain myself and my mother. Q: What does a Wayuu bag represent for you? R: For me a Wayuu bag represents the dream of each and every woman. The designs represent our culture. Engrained in every bag is our culture. I cannot abandon Wayuu bags because I was born with these bags. I was born crocheting. Since I was little they've always been there. Sometimes I even miss crocheting when I'm working on something else.

Life on the ranchería in La Guajira, Colombia is a truly different experience from what most of us know. Rancherías are located on desert land, where hardly anything grows. It is a way of life, peaceful and slow, almost like farm life. "It's not about changing an artisan's environment, but improving their conditions." Many indigenous people choose to live in rancherías instead of in the city. They prefer the peace and quiet over urban chaos. To be in a community they trust, instead of having to deal with the insecurity of a big city. They appreciate an open sky over city lights. As a result, when given the choice, many Wayuu women who have been given the chance to experience city life choose to go back to their ranchería to raise their children. Their kids can run free without any worry, while the women take care of them as well as provide financially. Wayuu bags are the community’s most important cultural heritage, but also, the main sustenance of the Wayuu. As a result, Wayuu women will rise with the sun to start her day, crochet and care for her community. I hope you enjoy this little taste of a very different world and cherish the art, craftsmanship and vibrant colors that come from this barren land.

Surely, you are curious to know about the origins of your Wayuu bag. You want to know where it came from and who made it. These factors are what give your Wayuu bag its colors and patterns.Let's take a brief overview and see what's behind your brightly colored mochila bag. Who are the Wayuu and where do they live? The Wayuu community is an indigenous group that lives in the northernmost part of Colombia in a region called La Guajira. This area is made up mostly of desert and the Wayuu indigenous community is for the most part very poor due to lack of government support. But that's a story for another day! The region is filled with rickety and flimsy wooden huts supposed to serve as homes. In many parts of La Guajira, running water does not reach and drinking water must be purchased. La Guajira's desertic region is an area where rain hasn't touched the roofs of its inhabitants in over three years. A Wayuu women's right of passage It all begins when a Wayuu girl goes from being a child to a woman. During her first menstrual cycle, she is obliged to stay confined to a hut anywhere from six months to a year (previously, they used to stay confined for up to 7 years!). During this time, she is only allowed to have contact with her mother and her grandmother. Throughout these months of confinement, these 2 women will teach her everything she needs to know about being a woman and caring for her future husband and children. It is during this time that she learns about the art of crocheting Wayuu bags. She learns the meaning of each pattern, triangle and color used in her bags. Working as a Wayuu women A traditional Wayuu woman will refine her crochet skills as she will continue to crochet throughout her life. However, it is not something she does full time. She must attend other duties such as caring for her home and family. How she sells her Wayuu bags A traditional Wayuu woman will usually live in her 'ranchería' or small village. In order to sell her bags, she must get them to the city. Sometimes, a representative of the village will gather all the bags produced by the women from the village and go and sell them in the city. Other times, the woman makes the trip to the city herself and sells them to a provider that will commercialize them and add the strap (Wayuu woman only make the bag itself).