Mujeres Sembrando la Vida: Pascuala has been in MSV for 21 years!

Pascuala lives in Jachentik, a village in the municipality of Zinacantán, Chiapas, Mexico. Pascuala has been a member of the MSV textile artisan cooperative in the municipality of Zinacantán, Chiapas, Mexico for 21 years.

She was one of the founders and remembers that at the beginning, they didn't know what products to create and they really didn't sell many of the products that they did produce.

Through a combination of trial and error and some strategic quality training workshops, the cooperative has worked to improve their textile products. She is grateful that sales have increased considerably since the early days of experimentation.

The cooperative sells their products in Mexico, the US, and online through Facebook and Etsy. They are constantly looking for new clients and new markets since this is an important source of income for a growing number of artisans in the MSV network.

Most of the artisans are women and most of their earnings go to support their families.

Pascuala often talks about how MSV has helped her feed her children. In her case, having an income to supplement her husband's income meant that they could afford to have their children stay in school much longer than their parents had been able to afford when they were growing up.

(Comment from the peanut gallery: Pascuala was featured on the home page of Natik's last website, and the (different) designer of the new website also chose her for Natik's home page image!)