Hola friend, greetings from Guerrero Mexico!

Algunas de nosotras estudiamos ingles en los Estados Unidos (las jóvenes que se fueron con sus papas mientras ellos trabajaban de braceros por allá). Gracias a ellas, ahora tenemos mas facilidad para aprender y usar este idioma.

Artisan family with a motor

Some of us studied English in the United States (as youth going with their parents who worked as bracero laborers there). Thanks to them we are able to learn and use the language.

Nosotras estamos aprendiendo a base de traducciones que hacemos comoejercicios en nuestras casas y ellas nos corrigen y así poco a poco vamostodas mejorando en esta difícil tarea.

We are learning based upon translations that we make as exercises in our homes. They correct us, and little by little we are improving in this difficult task.

Nos cuesta mucho trabajo y es muy difícil, pero sabemos que si queremos tener éxito, esto va a ser primordial manejarlo, así que pues ni modo, lo tenemos que hacer cueste lo que cueste.

It costs us a lot of work and it is very difficult, but we know that if we wish for success, this is necessary to work for it. Therefore, we do what we must do.

Hace años nos dijeron que debíamos utilizar el Internet para poder dejar de ser lo desconocidos que somos.

Years ago, we were told that we ought to use the Internet to stop being the unknowns that we are.

Algunos de los miembros de nuestra cooperativa han trabajado por casi tres años en aprender HTLM y los programas necesarios para poder crear nuestro sitio web. Contratamos algunos maestros de computación para que nos ayudaran.

Some members of our cooperative have worked for nearly three years to learn HTML code and the programs necessary to be able to create our Web site. We hired some computer teachers to help us.

Turquoise Cross

Finalmente creamos nuestro sitio web pero todavía estamos tratando de hacer que funciona para nosotras

Finally, we created our Web site and we are trying to make this work for us.

Confiamos en que Dios nos va a ayudar porque tenemos mucho que ofrecer y porque sabemos producir nuestras artesanías y constantemente buscamos cada día nuevas formas para crear lo que nos indican que el mercado de hoy quiere.

We believe that God is going to help us because we have much to offer and because we know how to produce our handcrafts. Each day, we seek new forms to create we seek to know what the markets of today desire.

Quiero darte la dirección del sitio web que creamos (este es el tercer intento mejorado) de Artcamp (esto es una abreviación de Artesanas Campesinas), y es el nombre de nuestra cooperativa.

I want to give you the address of our Web site (in its third edition) of Artcamp. Artcamp is an abbreviation of Artesanas Campesinas which means "Rural Women Artisans" in English.

Me gustaría que lo visites y nos aconsejes sobre lo que debemos de estar haciendo para mejorarlo y poder obtener beneficios del mismo, como nos dijo el amigo que nos aconsejo hacer este proyecto.

I would like you to visit it and advise us about what we should do to improve our Web site to gain an advantage.

La dirección es http://www.artcamp.com.mx Estaré esperando tus comentarios.

The address is http://www.artcamp.com.mx We would like your opinions.

Eso es todo por el momento, muchas gracias por reconocernos y esperamos estar en contacto.

That is all for now--many thanks for recognizing us, and we hope to be in contact.

Sus amigas en Guerrero México, saludos todas las mujeres de la cooperativa de Artcamp:

Your friends in Guerrero México--greetings from all the women of the Artcamp cooperative.

Yolanda, Areli, Tamara, Marcela, Maria, Hilaria, Luz, y Anglica y las otras...

Yolanda, Areli, Tamara, Marcela, Maria, Hilaria, Luz, and Anglica and the others...

Ojalá que un dia nos puede visitar aquí en México!

We hope that one day you may visit us in Mexico!

Atentamente,
Nohemi Perez

Bracelets

Artesanas Campesinas is an association of rural women artisans who have been struggling against the harsh tides of globalism that has steamrolled over the traditional markets of Mexican artisans. We come from a traditional handcrafts-producing village of Tecalpulco. As women, we've endured the results of the massive migration of men from the Mexican countryside to go away to work in the United States. Many women are on their own, supporting children and educating them. The cooperative of Artcamp came to being in an effort to try to remedy the need for a source of income, and to find a way to connect the past with the future.

In the 1980s, Tecalpulco had a big triumph, because it had created the beautiful floral mosaic abalone shell jewelry that became popular. Those were our parents and grandparents who were successful. The times are harder now than they were then, but that doesn't stop us. We have to survive, raise our children, make sure that they have a hope for a better world, and an understanding of tradition and heritage. We taught our daughters to learn HTML code because somebody told us that that would be our best chance to stop being the unknowns that we are; so, we could find a way to further ourselves as craftswomen.

Even though we are poor, we are always working for our community; in 2001, we got a company in the United States to donate opthalmic equipment to our local hospital, a modern eye care and surgery center! Artcamp also works with the village water commission to find ways to improve the availability of water to our community because for seven months out of the year, it is as dry on the hill here as a desert.

These are all ways we strive to keep going forward, paying attention to what is around us and that which is within us. We nurture our young children, showing them how to face difficulties with love and courage. We are always working in our shop, casting and sanding, polishing, forming, shaping, casting, laughing sometimes, sometimes frustrated; it is our life--the part we've been given by God and our destiny to play.

Paula Perez

Bio: Artesanas Campesinas is an association of rural women artisans who have been struggling against the harsh tides of globalism that has steamrolled the traditional markets of the Mexican artisans. We are always working in our shop, asting and sanding, polishing, forming, shaping, laughing sometimes, sometimes frustrated; it is our life, the part we've been given by God, and our destiny to play.