In the small
village of Agustin Gonzales located in the central Mexican highlands near San
Miguel de Allende, 20 people spend what little free time they have hooking rugs.
You will find them working late at night by kitchen tables after children are
asleep or perhaps you will see them sitting under a tree in the hillside tending
the cows and working on their rugs. Their
subject matter is the life around them, mountains, cactus, cows, horses, burros,
flowers, a small house, a church, ducks, rabbits, chickens, roosters or fish.
The people of the area are subsistence farmers who grow corn, beans and squash. The proceeds from selling these art pieces
help with paying for additional food, children's schooling, doctor visits and other family
needs. Many of the women are the sole support of their families.
Each art piece is entirely unique as is the skill of rug
hooking in Mexico.
The
Rug Hook Project was created in 1993 by a group of expatriates living in San
Miguel de Allende Mexico. Their vision was to enhance the lives of rural women
in two ways: create scholarships for girls so they could continue their
education, Mujeres en cambio, and finding a moneymaking occupation
for women, the Rug Hook Project. One of these women was MK Maudsley.
This is a quote from MK Maudsley
"
I didn't actually start the rancheritas down the rug-hooking path. Other women
pitched in to teach them when the expressed the desire to do
something different from the embroidery that is the typical handiwork of the
area. I was asked to go to SMA to help since I speak Spanish and am a rug
hooker. I accepted her invitation right away and started canvassing other
hookers in various groups in Nova Scotia for donation, primarily of wool, but
also of cash so that I could buy backing, etc for the amigas. I continued to go
each year for three years and was amazed at what the rancheritas were
beginning to produce. I brought back pictures of their work, and that helped
increase the donations (including one largish cash donation from a Public School
teachers' union! The weaving master at the
Instituto Allende offered them all the rug yarn left over from his courses, but I don't
think they liked working with it. I encouraged the rancheritas to use
knitted fabric of whatever kind they could find, but their ability to access
that is limited. I used to trot around to second-handshops looking for T
shirts, etc. Such material CAN be used to good effect, especially since they
don't make many pieces for the floor. Folks up here used to use Grandpa's old
long johns, satin from coat/jacket linings, etc--pretty much whatever came to
hand."
Charlotte Bell became
involved in 1999 when she visited the village to take photographs for the
website she was constructing for Mujeres en Cambio. She became enchanted
with the women and saw they had basically no marketing for their rugs.
Charlotte has been an independent artist since 1973 so she began bringing the
rugs back to the USA for shows and exhibits.
She does this as a service project.
