| Folk Arts - Master Artist - Maria Cuc Jiatz
Maria Cuc Jiatz, a Mayan weaver from Sololá, Guatemala, began to weave at the age of ten. She and her older sisters learned the art of backstrap weaving from their mother. Cuc Jiatz worked her way through middle and secondary school and was the only child out of six in her family to receive a formal education. After completing her studies, she assisted several grass-roots organizations on community development projects to help improve the lives of fellow Mayans. She then worked with isolated, rural communities around Lake Atitlán and made time to study Economics at the University of San Carlos, Sololá, for two more years. She moved to Spokane, Washington in 2003 with her two daughters to work with her husband to expand their importing business, a business which supports Mayan artists by promoting and selling their hand-woven textiles and crafts.
A recipient of a 2007 Folk Arts Apprenticeship grant, Cuc Jiatz trained her daughters, Lesly Sub Cuc and Ingrid Sub Cuc, in the traditional art of backstrap weaving. Her apprentices have learned how to assemble a loom, prepare balls of thread using a spindle, prepare the warp (the lengthwise threads of a weaving) using a warp board, and perform other tasks for this type of weaving. Cuc Jiatz believes, as a Mayan woman, that it is her responsibility to pass on this art form to her daughters. She hopes that her daughters will instill the values of Mayan culture and carry on this tradition with their own children in the future. As the recipient of a second Apprenticeship grant in 2008, Cuc Jiatz and her daughters will continue on this path. | |||
