El Círculo de La Abuela August-November 2024
August: We started the burlap embroidery class by displaying a banner showing the conflict caused by Operation Lonestar on the border. We also participated in the art event at Bricks by putting on our screen printing demonstration, putting out the cloths and t-shirts for sale.
September: El Círculo de La Abuela completes the Operation Lone Star banner, using the Burlap embroidery as a base to represent the fighting on the Frontier. We also participated in the Mexican lottery event with Mamis Líderes.
OCTOBER: Spheres class for the Feminist Art exhibition at the end of the year. The entire month of October we focused on creating spheres for the feminist art exhibition. These spheres required a great effort on the part of Grandma's circle to put embroidery techniques into practice in the form of decorations and at the same time they also shared an important message of the struggles we experience in our community.
November: Circulo de Abuela wanted to learn a new skill to expand their knowledge of crafts other than embroidery. We had a class on how to use the Cricut machine that makes exact shapes with great precision to help the ladies create more crafts with less difficulty.
The ladies participated in making the decorations for the Market that we had at Comadre Economies.
We had 13 vendors with used clothing, incense, ointments, soaps, and food.
We shared a good time in the community.
Comadre Economies is a project of Southwest Workers Union in collaboration with our Union, Domestic Workers in Action, which discusses the history of women who explore and create their own financial systems to support themselves. and their communities. These financial models were created from trust between individuals or groups, such as families, partners, cooperatives or close friends. Here, the term comadre is used to represent those relationships. Trust between comadre is used to represent these relationships. Trust between comadres challenges patriarchal and capitalist systems that have left women and LGBTQ people on the margins to survive solely by their own ingenuity. Historically, women and queer people around the world have been integral pieces of market culture, helping to build villages and towns with their crafts, textiles, products and services among other things. We are now at a time in our society where economic violence forces many people and families of color to consider alternative methods of generating income. Many people often work multiple jobs or use their talents to earn money by doing crafts, babysitting, offering traditional medicine, or other services. San Antonio is the base of our operation because our community has long been a business community. The natural springs that surround us brought many different groups of indigenous people from the north and south. Many of these same ancient trade routes were also exploited by settlers, Europeans and later American slave owners. Exploitation and forced marginalization led to a mixed culture from which the city was born.
