75 Indigenous women from the Wirrárica community in Mezquitic received training in sales and customer service. Jalisco, Mexico, March 22.—In 2016, Trust for the Americas launched the VIVE Project: Come, Be Inspired, and Sell—with the goal of providing tools to women in vulnerable situations. After nearly three years of work, we have succeeded in making an impact on women in addiction rehabilitation centers, women incarcerated, women who are victims of domestic violence, and some indigenous women’s communities. On this occasion, thanks to a partnership with Desarrollo Rural Sustentable LU’UM A.C., the VIVE Project reached La Cebolleta and La Laguna, two Wirrárica indigenous communities located in the municipality of Mezquitic, in the state of Jalisco. Over the course of a week, “I met women who lack the basics for daily life but strive every day to obtain them,” said Laura Hernández, a VIVE Project liaison who traveled for more than 7 hours to reach her first destination: La Cebolleta. La Cebolleta “After arriving in Mezquitic, I traveled another three hours toward La Cebolleta, driving along roads through the mountains. When we arrived, I was struck by how far apart the houses were from one another. Most are small, simple adobe houses, though some already have rainwater collection systems. This has benefited the community because the spring is an hour’s walk away,” said Laura Hernández. La Cebolleta is considered one of the most marginalized communities in Mexico; it has about 180 residents. Laura noted that “some homes already have electricity; they use firewood for cooking; the floors are dirt; and the bathrooms are outhouses with a curtain. It’s a community where the weather is extreme.” Its main economic activities are based on agriculture and the sale of handicrafts; the latter has opened important doors to paid work for women, though not with the economic independence that was hoped for. “It’s a community with deep-rooted traditions—some very beautiful, like the love for the land and all living things; others not so much, such as arranged marriages. I remember a 15-year-old girl who told us that her grandmother had already betrothed her, but she didn’t want to get married.” Laura Hernández, project liaison. The women in the community still do not speak Spanish, though some of them understand it. However, this was not a barrier preventing 45 Wirrárica women (known as Huichols—a term they describe as “offensive”) from receiving training in sales, customer service, and marketing. “Only the girls and boys speak Spanish; the adult women don’t, but thanks to LU’UM, I had the support of a translator who helped us make the course easier to understand. It was a unique experience because the day I arrived, they were already waiting for me; they were excited and eager to learn what I would teach them,” said the VIVE Project coordinator. Laura explained that thanks to LU’UM’s work, the women of the Wirrárica community have greater autonomy, but they are still “very serious. They told me that about nine years ago, if someone wanted to speak with a woman, a man from the community or her husband had to be present, and they would answer on her behalf. This time, they were the ones who answered all the questions, and that made me very happy.” After three days in La Cebolleta, Laura traveled for 45 minutes to the community of La Laguna. La Laguna “Access to La Laguna is more complicated; it’s all dirt roads and steep slopes—the scenery is breathtaking. The name doesn’t actually refer to the place, because there’s no water in this community either—there’s no lagoon. I visited this community because there were about 30 women who wanted training, but the conditions weren’t right for them to go to La Cebolleta.” La Laguna is also considered a highly marginalized community in the municipality of Mezquitic, Jalisco, where the sale of handicrafts plays an important role in the local economy. For this reason, the topics covered were sales, customer service, and marketing. “Most people are a bit rough around the edges when it comes to making sales; they don’t know how to treat people, and they don’t realize that they’re shoving things at customers or that their manners aren’t appropriate—that’s why we decided to offer this training,” explained Laura. “We thought we were serving customers well,” said Amalia Rodríguez, a graduate of the VIVE Project from La Cebolleta, who makes embroidered crafts such as earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. She told us that they had sold their goods before: “We thought we were serving our customers well, but in the course Laura taught us, I realized we were missing a lot. I liked the training; now I feel more confident. I know I can sell.” The women from La Cebolleta and La Laguna make trips to downtown Mezquitic to sell their products and have a community center where they also display them to people passing by. Desarrollo Rural Sustentable LU’UM A.C. has enabled women from these communities to travel to other states to sell and promote their products. “They already know the processes for pricing their products, but they lacked sales and customer service skills. Today, these 75 women have that knowledge thanks to the training provided by the VIVE Project.” Come back soon—there are still more women to come! “At the end of the training sessions, one of the participants told me, ”Come back soon—there are still more women to come!’ It was an experience I’ll carry in my heart, because I realized that The Trust for the Americas, through projects like VIVE, is making up for a little of what some people are missing,” said Laura Hernández.
