Weaving for Justice records

Collection

Identifier: Ms-0565

Staff Only

Content Description

The Sophia’s Circle, DBA Weaving for Justice collection covers a period of time beginning in 1988 when Dr. Christine Eber, co-founder and coordinator, began working with Tsotsil-Maya weaving collectives in Chiapas, Mexico. The records include her earliest fieldnotes while in Chiapas in the late 1980s and other records upon her return to Buffalo, New York, but the majority of the series, subseries, and sub-subseries cover activities of individuals in Chiapas and throughout the U.S. who have been involved with Dr. Eber in assisting artisan collectives in Chiapas and in the U.S.-Mexico border in their capacities as students, faculty, and community members. These activities were largely informal from 1989-2003. From 2003-2011 they became formalized under The Las Cruces-Chiapas Connection, a project of the non-profit Sophia’s Circle. In 2012 when Las Cruces Chiapas Connection changed its name, activities continued under the name of Weaving for Justice.

The collection begins with the series “Organizational History” followed by nine other series: Audiovisual materials; C. Eber’s writings and public talks; Correspondence; Delegations from Las Cruces to Chiapas; Educational Materials; Events; Newspaper articles; Posters; Sales; and Weaving Groups in Chiapas that Weaving for Justice assists. Several of these series have subseries and two have sub-subseries. The collection also contains a Glossary of words in Tsotsil which appear frequently. (Tsotsil is the Mayan language spoken by most of the weavers in the Chiapas collectives.)

The subseries “Fundraisers for scholarships for Maya youth (2015-2022)” covers an area of growing importance to Weaving for Justice - partnering with the Maya Educational Foundation to raise funds for scholarships for Maya youth in Belize, Chiapas, and Guatemala.

The series “Correspondence” contains a selection of emails from 2003 to 2022 between the steering committee and volunteers of Weaving for Justice printed from Christine Eber’s sent email. Hence they are her communications or her responses to others’ emails. The collection does not at this time include others volunteers’ email communications with one another.

The collection does not contain WhatsApp communications between weaving collectives and Weaving for Justice members. Since 2020, texts and voice messages on WhatsApp have become the preferred way of communicating between the weaving collectives and Weaving for Justice.

A new accession of records is added every September. The contents of each annual accession are added to the appropriate file and series.

Dates

1988 - 2022

Creator

Weaving for Justice (Organization)

Language of Materials

The material within the collection is in English and some correspondence is in Spanish and in Tsotsil.

Conditions Governing Access

Open. All materials in this collection are available for research in the Caroline E. Stras Research Room.

Biographical / Historical

Sophia’s Circle, DBA Weaving for Justice is an all-volunteer organization based in Las Cruces, New Mexico that works in solidarity with Maya women’s weaving collectives in Chiapas, Mexico with the goal to enable the members to continue living sustainably on their ancestral lands and avoid being forced to migrate. Sophia’s Circle was founded in 2003 as a 501c3 non-profit organization by Jean Bergs (formerly Jean McDonnell) with the assistance of Dr. Christine Eber, an NMSU anthropology faculty member. The seeds for the formation of Sophia’s Circle, DBA Weaving for Justice, were sown in the mid 1990s in the aftermath of the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas. At this time Dr. Eber, Meghann Dallin and Patricia González, current Weaving for Justice Steering Committee members, helped organize students, faculty and the Las Cruces community to hold fundraisers for displaced people, sell weavings from collectives, and educate the broader community about the low-intensity war against Zapatista supporters.

Sophia’s Circle’s initial goal was to create and support women’s art and cultural organizations on the U.S.- Mexico border. In June 2003 Jean and Patricia joined nine other Las Cruces women and NMSU students to participate on a delegation to Chiapas led by Christine to learn about women’s rights and human rights. Upon their return, the delegation members encouraged Sophia’s Circle to take on as its major project to assist Maya weaving collectives. The delegation members called their project the Las Cruces-Chiapas Connection (LCCC).

From 2003 until 2012 when LCCC changed its name to Weaving for Justice, the network of volunteers created many connections between Chiapas weaving collectives and the public, particularly Mexican and New Mexican women’s artisan collectives. Over the years Weaving for Justice/LCCC has hosted and co-hosted exhibits, fundraisers and educational events at NMSU and in the Las Cruces community focused on human rights, Maya women’s textile traditions, and economic alternatives to federal and state-sponsored development projects in indigenous communities of Chiapas. In 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2006 Weaving for Justice co-sponsored visits of three Maya weavers (one weaver visited three times) to New Mexico and West Texas.

Since 2012, Sophia’s Circle, DBA Weaving for Justice has enjoyed a strong partnership with the NMSU University Museum and the Maya Educational Foundation based in Massachusetts. Weaving for Justice assists the Foundation to raise funds for scholarships for Maya youth in Chiapas, Belize, and Guatemala by means of selling textiles from Latin America that individuals donate to Weaving for Justice for this purpose. Weaving for Justice partners with the NMSU University Museum to hold annual fundraisers of donated textiles on Days of the Dead.

Since early 2022, Weaving for Justice has been renting a space at First Christian Church in Las Cruces and on the 3rd Saturday of each month holds sales of both Chiapas textiles and donated textiles in the Church Atrium. All proceeds from sales of textiles from Chiapas weaving collectives go back to ten weaving groups in Chiapas, totalling about 196 women and girls and a few men and boys.

Sophia’s Circle, DBA Weaving for Justice is led by an eight-member Steering Committee coordinated by Christine Eber. The all-volunteer organization sustains its work on behalf of Maya weavers and their families through donations and annual membership fees. In 2023 the organization had 182 members in good standing.

Extent

4.5 Linear Feet

Additional Description

Abstract

Founded in 2003 by Jean Bergs, Sophia’s Circle, later to be named Weaving for Justice is an all-volunteer organization based in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The organization works with Maya women’s weaving collectives in Chiapas, Mexico with the goal to allow the members to continue living on their ancestral lands and avoid being forced to migrate. Sophia’s Circle’s initial goal was to create and support women’s art and cultural organizations on the U.S.- Mexico border. In 2023, the organization had 182 members in good standing and is still active.