Face of the Crisis

Orlando López, Rug Maker, Oaxaca Mexico

Orlando lives in Teotitlán del Valle, a town near the city of Oaxaca where the Zapotecs have woven elegant and colorful rugs for centuries, using the same traditional technique. The tapestries and rugs are then sold on the streets of Oaxaca, mainly to tourists. The rugs are made entirely by hand, everything from the design to setting the loom, including carding and dying the wool with natural colors and materials such as marigold, moss and the insect cochineal. Each rug is unique and takes up to two weeks to produce. Despite the labor-intensity and care of the process, a large rug is sold, on average for only 80 USD.

Orlando Lopez was born and raised in Teotitlán, and he started weaving and selling rugs when he was 5 years old, and at 34 he continues supporting his family of seven by selling his art. Or at least, he is trying. The economic crisis and the H1N1 virus have taken a devastating toll on tourism, which provides the main clientele for Orlando and all the weavers. “When the crisis started my earnings were reduced up to 40%, but with the influenza scare they were lowered by 80% or up to a 90%”, he said when asked about how his earnings were affected by the crises. “In April of 2009 I sold an average of three to four rugs per week. In May of 2009 I did not sell one single rug the whole month.”

Orlando lives with his wife, three daughters, his mother and his brother. The adults work on average between 14 and 15 hours a day, seven days a week. And although the sales of his rugs has diminished, his workload has not; they all continue working the same amount of hours, creating products of even better quality to be able to remain competitive.

Orlando’s positive attitude is inspiring. He is thankful that he has been able to survive and endure the consequences of the two catastrophic crises. Still, he acknowledges that things are far from easy—in what he would describe as being a good week of sales, he would earn around 70 USD after covering production expenses; in a bad week, he would make no money at all. The future of his trade and the other weavers and artisans of Oaxaca remains uncertain.

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