PROBLEMS THAT CAN OCCUR AND ADVANTAGES OF A TRAINING CENTRE:

From our experience in the Sierra teaching Huichol women to use spinning wheels we have devised the following strategy:

1) Huichol women often don't speak very good Spanish, some speak none at all. Quite apart from the language problem many are very shy, and completely unable to speak to strangers.
It is important to have a Huichol woman as an instructor.

2) Huichol women nearly always have a lot of family around them which is a tremendous distraction if you are trying to teach somebody something because they all want to see and shout things and poke fun at the poor women who may be trying to work a treadle for the first time in her life, and is struggling to master the co ordination to make the wheel go round, never mind which way round it turns.
Huichol women have a great many things to do in the course of a day, and its difficult to get one person to sit down quietly for any time. They are always off to make tortillas, or to wash the clothes, or fetch the goats, or something.

The best way to teach a Huichol woman how to spin is to invite her to stay somewhere far away from home .

3) Many Huichol live in remote ranchos with only tracks over the mountains between them. Travelling is time consuming and one can never be certain of finding the person at home.
It is better to teach in a training centre where several women can come at one time to learn.

4) It is not enough that a person knows how to spin with a spinning wheel, a person really needs to be at ease and fluent at spinning to be able to make commercial use of her spinning wheel. In practice we find that most people can learn to spin in a week and in two weeks they may feel that they know it all when in fact they don't, that actually takes about another two weeks. This makes for a total of a month long training period.


5) It is important for the owner of a spinning wheel to know how to look after it, and to learn good rituals of maintenance.
Good rituals of maintenance are best learned by keeping company for a lengthy period of time with someone who can give a good example.
A time period of a month also about the period needed for the person to become familiar with the solutions to problems that can occur with a spinning wheel on the basis that everything that could go wrong, will go wrong within this time.


5) The objective that as many Huichol women as possible should benefit from the spinning wheel presents the problem of how to distribute them to those who will benefit most. One cannot sell them because very few Huichol women have enough money to buy a spinning wheel, especially when it is something new and they don't know how to make good use of it.
One cannot just give them away to likely candidates (a) because people are very jealous and (b) because what is easily gained is easily lost, which is to say that the gifts would not be appreciated and used.
For a person to decide to leave home for a month is a big decision, and the spinning wheel is a worthy prize. It is a well balanced affair, and nobody can be jealous because it is an option truly open to all.


TRAINING PROGRAM:

With the above aims in view we set up a training centre at our base in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. We built as I described earlier, a Huichol style house on our roof with a kitchen and laundry. We took special care to make the place as cool as possible, with plenty of ventilation and mosquito netting because La Cruz is warmer than the their natural home in the Sierra. ( Generally speaking the Huichol seem to be unperturbed by fleas but mosquitoes drive them mad. )

As soon as the first spinning wheels were ready I drove to the Sierra ( a 1,400 kilometre round trip ) to visit with a Huichol family we have known for many years. Because there are no telephones in the Sierra, they could not know I was coming, but since we had talked often of the plan to come and learn to spin with the spinning wheel they were not surprised to see me. Nevertheless it is a bit precipitative to suddenly arrive and want to leave the next day with the women of the house, especially if there has been no precedent. Fortunately I am trusted sufficiently well, and succeeded in bringing back two Huichol women, Emilia and Alicia. Naturally I had also to bring back their dependent children . Of Emilia's 8 children, only one was so small that he had to come with his mother. Of Alicia's three children two had to travel with her.

The next day I drove back with the two women and three children. Once back at base everything started well, but soon we realised that Emilia was suffering from a severe rash, and bad eyesight ( she is 40 years old), and that Alicia had colitis and the children diarrhoea. It took a visit to the optician, a series of visits to the doctor and a small pharmacy of medicines and almost three weeks to cure all these problems. The causes were a mixture of allergies, amoebas and various types of worms.

Meanwhile the spinning proceeded. Emilia already knew how to spin with a spindle very well, and she rapidly learnt to spin with the wheel. Alicia had never spun before, but she picked it up from Emilia, and although she was slower, she was already precise and consistent after spinning about a pound of wool. They both made steady progress, and they also enjoyed their stay on the coast, going for walks to the beach, to the village plaza, and occasionally into Vallarta to go shopping. (We paid them a little so that they could buy something for their families when they returned.)

By the time Emilia had spun enough wool to weave a set of three pouches she was completely fluid with her new machine. We made up the pieces of wood for a back strap loom for her to use, which she then warped up and she started to weave a set of three pouches. She was spinning and weaving alternating these activities. This was very good for Alicia who only knew simple weaving up till then.

Emilia just finished her weaving by the time she was due to go back. I drove her back up to the Sierra with the intention of finding two more students, but by now it was the end of June and well into the rainy season. At this time of year every able bodied Huichol is busy plowing, planting, or weeding the crops, first maize, then beans and squash. I found several women who really wanted to come, but it was impossible for them to leave their families at such a critical time. I hunted everywhere hoping to find someone without obligations, and although I found two ladies with less obligations, apparently there was no one without obligations. Everyone kept telling me 'December'.

I took Emilia to the Huichol Centre that Susana Valadez has started in Huejuquilla. This is one the first important towns that you come to as you leave the Sierra, and there are always many Huichol passing through. Susana works mostly with beads, but she is interested in working with wool also, although she herself does not know how to spin so I introduced her to Emilia. Emilia has been spinning and weaving all her life and knows important things such as where to buy wool amongst the Tepehuanes who live nearby and who have many sheep. Soon Emilia will teach spinning and weaving at Susana's place and I left two spinning wheels with Susan for her first students.

At the moment we are looking for our next students who will probably come from the Huichol Cultural Centre in Santiago Ixcuintla run by Mariano Valadez. Meanwhile Alicia is exploring new lines of articles that Huichol can weave which are easier to sell than pouches. At the moment she is making a set of cushion covers which are a fine double weave on the face side, and a simpler weave on the reverse.
I am making a compact frame loom which Alicia will set up to weave cloth for a type of woollen jacket which I feel sure will sell well, also to the Huichol themselves.


SUMMARY OF THE TRAINING PROGRAM:

CONDITIONS OF TRAINING:

1. Huichol women come to learn at a training centre for a period of a month.
2. They can bring their youngest children.
3. They are taught by a skilled Huichol woman.
4. They will receive payment half will be given in advance because they need money for food for their families, and the rest on completion of the course.
5. All costs will be paid, transport, medicine for most common treatments, food, soap, spectacles, etc.
6. Those who prove skilled in the use of the spinning wheel will receive a spinning wheel and two extra bobbins and a set of carders as a gift on leaving.


BASIC INSTRUCTION:

1. Spinning fast and efficiently. How to produce different types of thread such as strong hard wearing thread for bags etc, and soft open warm types for blankets. Plying efficiently. Skeining. Yarn Count.
2. Preparation of fibre washing methods, oiling, carding. Control of quality of fibre.
3. Use and care of the spinning wheel: Oiling, changing cord, adjusting tension, how to deal with all the problems that may occur.


EXTRA INSTRUCTION:
According to the interest of the student we aim at being able to offer the the following instruction:

4. The production of formerly used traditional items for use in the Sierra, such as blankets and warm jackets, and other items that are aimed at selling to foreigners such as cushion covers, kangaroo pouches etc.
5. Different types of weaving with a back strap loom, (not all Huichol women know their own traditional types of weaving).
6. How to set up a frame loom, and weave with foot powered heddles.
7. Dyeing with natural dyes and use of mordants.
8. Dying with synthetic dyes.

Top of the Page