Guadalupe Ramírez

-Director-

Guadalupe Ramírez was born in the town of Tejutla, San Marcos, in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. Descendants of slaves, Guadalupe and her family struggled to maintain their health and well-being in a poverty-stricken community until their lives were transformed when nuns from Belgium arrived after Vatican II to foster liberation through education and empowerment. Guadalupe’s father was selected to participate in a cooperative leader training program, subsequently becoming a leader in the cooperative movement. The change fostered by the organization of cooperatives was substantial and long lasting, one generation later, her family now contains one sister who is an accountant, another sister a schoolteacher, the third sister has her MBA, and the youngest is working on a postgraduate degree in chemical engineering.

Spending much of her childhood in cooperatives meetings, Guadalupe learned that people could change their lives for the better by working together. While there are serious challenges confronting indigenous communities, the practices of consensus and community action have allowed her people to survive centuries of injustice and marginalization.

Mayra Izara

-Pixan Coordinator-

Mayra is from San Juan Ostuncalco. She fluently speaks, reads, and writes Spanish and the Maya language Mam. These skills have been very helpful to bond with women's circles in the Quetzaltenango communities of San Juan Ostuncalco and Llanos del Pinal. Mayra has worked at AMA for seven years. She started working as a community facilitator and also became Coordinator of PIXAN’s House of Design. AMA is fortunate to benefit from Mayra’s talents in its Health, Agricultural and PIXAN House of Design projects. Her PIXAN work involves guiding and encouraging groups of skilled artisans, to be part of the PIXAN team and always strive to improve their work. "Working with AMA and interacting with the indigenous women in these communities everyday has changed my way of thinking and acting. AMA provides opportunities for training, learning and, above all, for having a dignified life to the women of the CMA (AMA women’s circles) and their families, This project also respects these womens’ advanced skills in weaving and agriculture."