Guatemalan Artisans Fight Back

Guatemalan Artisans Fight Back. Guatemalan Artisans face many challenges, product designs are stolen, copied, and sold as Authentic Guatemala Handmade products. The Guatemala government has heard the voices of 1000 Guatemala Weavers asking for protection without success.

The Weavers have asked for Trademark Protection by the Guatemala Government, a mistake in order to stop the copying of Artisan Products Copyright Protection is the only answer. Ethical Fashion Guatemala is the first website to take on this challenge of protecting Guatemala Artisans’ designs.

https://fashionista.com/2017/08/guatemalan-artists-etsy-copyright-infringement

 

Imagine you’re a weaver or leather-worker in Guatemala. You labor intensely over a product — let’s say a bag featuring textiles unique to your heritage — and sell it to an American tourist for $35. It’s worth a good deal more, you think, but the American drives a hard bargain, and considering 65 percent of your nation lives below the poverty line, something is always better than nothing. You make the sale.

A few months later, you stumble across the bag you made selling online for nearly $300 on an American website that claims to be benefiting Artisans like yourself. The website may feature a picture of yourself that you never gave the visiting tourist permission to take or use, or it may feature a picture of a weaver you’ve never met from another village.

Artisans Fight Back Stopping Websites Selling Fake Guatemala Products

There are many Websites that offer Authentic Guatemala Artisan products. Many NGO’s operate out of Guatemala providing needed support for Artisans.

Then there are Websites that sell Guatemala Handmade products and take advantage of the Artisan’s lack of knowledge or the simple need of money to feed the families, resulting in the Artisan selling products for pennies on the dollar.

In Guatemala, we have found 61 E-Commerce websites operating out of the US or owned by Americans, what we call Predator sites. Some with sales of $1 million annually. They claim to be Ethical, Fair Trade, and Transparency. Who is checking? Only Ethical Fashion Guatemala.

The profile is the same, mostly owned by Woman, great websites, huge social media following. Helping poor people, collecting donations, and making claims of Transparency and Fair Trade. Lots of pictures of the owners with poor Mayans. Donations are asked for. Workshops and Tours. No means to every contact the Artisans that produce the products or verify Transparently.

These Website operators pay the Artisans less than 8% of the retail selling price they sell a product on-line. Workshops they pay a Weaver $20 for the day to teach a person how to Weaver. While they collect upwards to $500 for selling the Workshop on-line.

Guatemala Handmade Leather Huipil Bags, Weekender

This is a very popular product sold on-line, most look very similar in style, size, and design? They are often purchased by these website owners off the shops on the streets of Antigua, Chichicastenango, and Lake Atitlan. These bags sell on-line from $200 to as high as $360. The shop owners are often paid less than $40 for these bags.

Guatemalan Artisans Fight Back. How Your Can Help.
Before you buy any product on-line claiming to support Guatemala Artisans or is Handmade ask a few questions before you make that purchase of a stunning Handmade Product from Guatemala.
Who made this Product?
Where was the Product made?
Can I contact the person who made my Product?
What % of the sales go directly to the Artisan?
If the site makes claims of supporting Artisans through Donations ask how?