The Women of the Juan Pablo
Segundo Sewing Cooperative

Below are brief sketches of the lives of some of the women of the Juan Pablo Segundo Sewing Cooperative, many with photos. You can also click here to read personal letters from some of the women.

Janeth

Janeth is 27 and a single mother. Educated to primary school level, she left home at 12 to work in the city as a maid and nanny. Falling pregnant at 18 she returned home to live with her mother and her eight siblings, none of whom work. The father of her child emigrated illegally to the US and has not been heard of since. So Janeth came to work with the cooperative and now, three years on, is one of their best workers. Through the money she has earned in the group, she has built a small house for her mother and family.
Letter from Janeth

Lesly

Lesly is 32 and also a single mother. She also worked as a maid from an early age in the city before falling pregnant and returning home while the father of her child moved away and refused to support the child. Now she and her eight-year-old daughter Damisela depend upon the income from the cooperative, and her dress-making skills are beginning to become famous in the area. Since the age of eight Lesly has worked and only has a primary level education. She dreams of sending Damisela to a bilingual school and giving her daughter the education she never had the chance to receive.

Jenny

Two years ago Jenny, who is 17, graduated from the first level of high school. She came top of her class and her teachers knew she would go far. However, when it came time to enroll to complete high school there was no money for books and uniform so she could not go. She decided to work for the cooperative and proved a highly skilled seamstress. So for one year she worked and now, this February, thanks to the money she has saved from her year of work and the work she continues to do for the cooperative in her spare time, she enrolled in an Administration course and she plans to go on to university.
Letter from Jenny

Rosario

Rosario has been the life force of the Juan Pablo Cooperative for over 20 years. Thanks to her energy the women of the local communities have worked together to build fish ponds, grow vegetables, build the high school, and care for children. Three years ago she decided that her self-taught sewing skills could help the women earn some money so she began to teach her friends how to sew and embroider. This work has steadily grown into the quilts that they are selling today. Last year her husband passed away after a cruel and rapid illness, but Rosario remains the heart of the group and is greatly respected in the area for her dedication, honesty and hard work, all done with only four years of schooling and a youth spent working alongside the men in the fields.

Patricia

Pati is 24 and has three children by a man who went away to work one day and never came back. The twins are in the kindergarten that Rosario helped establish and her oldest has just started school. For the past year she has worked with the cooperative and with the desperately needed income she has at last been able to live self-sufficiently without depending on her mother, Candida, for food. She has bought her children school uniforms and they eat meat occasionally now.

Xiomara

Xiomara is a very quiet young woman who comes to work with her 1-year-old daughter, who screamed all day from hunger. It is a battle for her to work because her mother-in-law, who also lives in up the mountain, tells Xiomara's husband to beat her to stop her because she is really looking for another man. Xiomara has only been working with the group for a few weeks but this week with her earnings she bought the child a tin of milk powder and now the little girl no longer cries so much. Now that she is bringing home money each week the mother-in-law doesn't interfere quite so much.

Damaris

Damaris graduated from primary school two years ago at the age of 14 and her father told her that this was more than enough schooling and that from then on she would be in charge of the household laundry and cooking. Meanwhile her little sister was sent to the high school, leaving Damaris 'the donkey' as he calls her, to wash her sister's uniform. After two years of laundry her father finally agreed to let her join the cooperative, and despite a lack of confidence in her ability she has improved greatly and is heartbreakingly proud to take home her week's earnings.

Candida

Candida passed away in May 2005. She had worked with the group since its beginnings. She cared for and supported her six children, her three grandchildren, and her mother on her earnings and the maize and beans that her husband Alejandrino grows. With four children still in school she constantly struggled to provide for her family, but she remained ever smiling.
Letter from Candida

Yadira

Yadi is plump and constantly smiling. Childless but with a loving partner, her yelping laugh rings daily through the new workshop. Without the money that she earns by sewing with the group Yadira and Wilmer would depend on the small income from the beans he grows on the mountain peak in the distance above El Pital, this being around 3 euros a week.

Reina

Reina is a quiet but smiling woman of 21. She leaves her small boy Melvin at home with his father, who only once in a while decides to work, and crosses the river to the workshop. She is a very hard worker who restrains from the continuous stream of chatter and gossip that the women fill their day with. The money she earns from the group is pretty much the sole income of her household and her ability to buy food has proved a shield for her.
Letter from Reina

Angie

Angie is 16 and pregnant. She was studying for her high school certificate but the missionary school expelled her when they found out about her pregnancy. Her teenage boyfriend ran away when he found out and so she returned to her family down the valley. She is new to the group but learning very fast and with the money she is saving from her work she plans to buy cloths and food for her child when he/she arrives. Until then, she will work as long as she can — the group will not expel her. In fact, it invites women to bring their children to work with them and more often than not Rosario will feed the children.

Xiomara Ortega

Xiomara has just returned to El Pital following a year working on a pittance as a domestic maid. She returned to study but then she discovered that the high school principal had lied, taken the inscription fees and then declared there were no classes. So he came to Rosario and asked for work, which she got. The money she earns she uses to take care of her niece, who has been left in her sole care. She is 21.

Fani

Fani has two small children and a partner who earns very little money clearing land up the mountain where they live. Even the women of El Pital describe Fani and her sister-in-law Kenia as superpobre (really poor), which shows the need for her earnings from the cooperative. Luckily her husband's disability has lessened to the extent that he can work, but he is not strong and now she feels the burden upon her to provide the beans and rice that they need to supplement their diet of maize tortillas. She is 27.

Kenia

Kenia is only 22 but she is a single mother of two. She lives up in the mountain near to her absent partner's sister, who helps her as much as she can, but life up the mountain is very hard. Kenia struggles to provide food and clothing for her children, but with the help of her earnings in the cooperative her life is a little easier.

Alicia

Abandoned by her mother as a toddler, Alicia, who is now 17, was raised by Rosario's mother. Last year she left home to move across the river to be with her partner but now she returns each day to join the cooperative and help earn money to build their own home and afford to have children. She is still very young but learns quickly. The opportunities to learn as part of the cooperative include classes in the environment, administration, math and agriculture. Therefore, she can learn although she can no long afford to go to school.

Eda

Another woman designated superpobre by the women; Eda is a mother of two with a husband, a rare thing in El Pital. At 27 she is a painfully shy woman who is desperately eager to please and is learning fast. Every day she wears her best clothes, as do most of the women, to come to work and she is proud to take home her earnings at the end of each week — to buy medicine, clothing and food for her children and husband.