My name is Gabriel Dubiel. I am an artist, craftsman and student in the San Francisco Bay Area.

This project emerged from my research into the handmade craft and material culture practiced by more than one million Guatemalans. Through 20 interviews, conducted in eight towns spanning rural to urban Guatemala, I documented the personal stories of artists, artisans and designers.

Though their experiences are diverse, common threads emerge:

Cultural Continuity and Resilience
Many Guatemalan artisans and artists describe their work as an herencia ancestral (“ancestral inheritance”). Through craft, they assert identity, preserve history and even act out resistance.

Innovation with Tradition
Guatemalan artists and artisans blend traditional methods with modern aesthetics, global collaborations, or new materials, not as a departure from heritage but as a living adaptation.

Craft as Economic Empowerment and Social Mission
Craft provides Guatemalans economic livelihood, community impact, and dignity.

Intergenerational Legacy and Fear of Loss
Artisans express pride in passing knowledge to their children or apprentices, but also worry that economic and cultural shifts may lead to disappearance.

Globalization as Opportunity and Threat
Globalization has allowed Guatemalan artists, and their creations, to be appreciated worldwide. But global forces, from fast fashion to counterfeit products, also threaten Guatemalan craft.

Why this matters:

In Guatemala, craft is more than object: it is identity. It is imperative that Guatemalan craft— and the artists, artisans and designers who carry it forward— are known, appreciated and valued. As Claudia Menéndez, a textile artist, explains: “If we want to value ourselves, we must value our crafts.”

To learn more about the cultural, social, and economic implications of artisanship in Guatemala, please see these resources:

Benavente, José Miguel, and Matteo Grazzi. Public Policies for Creativity and Innovation: Promoting the Orange Economy in Latin America and the Caribbean. 2017, https://doi.org/10.18235/0000841.

Cornejo, Kency. Visual Disobedience. 2024, pp. 35–77, https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478059608-002. (Chapter: “Semillas”)

Grimes, Kimberly M., et al. Artisans and Cooperatives: Developing Alternative Trade for the Global Economy. no. 2, Jan. 2001, p. 61, https://doi.org/10.2307/1358952.

López, Andrés C. Kemenik Le Ch’o’b’oj / Tejiendo Historias / Weaving Histories/Stories: Creating a Memoria Histórica of Resistance through Maya Backstrap Weaving Rhetorics. Sept. 2023, https://doi.org/10.58680/ccc202332673.

Riddering, Laura. “The Art of Development: Economic and Cultural Development through Art in San Juan La Laguna, Guatemala.” Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, vol. 16, no. 2, Mar. 2018, pp. 123–37, https://doi.org/10.1080/14766825.2016.1211662.

Sagone Echeverría, Itziar. Arte Que Construye Historia. Un Paseo Por La Narrativa Visual Contemporánea de Post Guerra. no. 19, Dec. 2018, pp. 226–35, https://doi.org/10.25267/PERIFERICA.2018.I19.22.

Salvador Almela, Marta, and Núria Abellan Calvet. The Mayan Weavers of Guatemala: An Active Process for the Safeguarding of Their Cultural Intangible Heritage. no. 2, Oct. 2020, pp. 93–109, https://doi.org/10.1344/THJ.2020.2.7.

Zhang, Aosheng. “Research on Art Participation Models in the Protection and Inheritance of Traditional Crafts.” Communications in Humanities Research, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7064/34/20240069.