Our History

In 1996 a group of friends, textile professionals and graphic designers came together to form El Camino, a French non-profit association with the mission to contribute their time and knowledge to the extraordinary age-old knowledge of the indigenous weavers of Chiapas. In January 2009, the weavers and designers created in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, the Mexican nonprofit association El Camino de Los Altos (ECLA) , bringing together 130 women artisans from the municipalities of Chamula, San Andrés Larrainzar, Pantelho, Oxchuc and Zinacantán, located in the mountains of Chiapas.

For the past 25 years, these 130 craftswomen, bearers of ancestral knowledge, from the Chiapas highlands have worked together with the collective of designers sharing and exchanging their knowledge in a mutually enriching collaboration. The multicultural nature of this association in which the women speak different combinations of local languages and master different skill and techniques, with the designers in the collective helping to create collections which incorporate products, color and textures with the essence starting from the artistic vision of the weavers themselves.

Weavers and designers exchange knowledge and learning creating a common language through the exploration of the weaving techniques, the textile design, and color.

The work is the product of a participatory dynamic of collaboration between the artist weavers and the designers in which the former bring centuries of knowledge, traditional iconography and the ancestral techniques of the Mayan communities, passed down trhough the generations while the designers.

Contribute advice on how to place the textiles in a market that recognizes, values and makes visible the work done by women, with a total commitment to improving the economic retribution received by the artists.

At the heart of the project was the encounter 25 years ago between Veronique Tesseraud, a textile designer specializing in warp and weft and the women artists and artisans of Chiapas.

Originally a research project on Maya textile art, at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle, in Paris, Veronique continued to travel to Mexico absorbing the artistic richness of the Mayan weavers of Chiapas.

She persuaded a group of textile designers in France to support the project pro-bono with the goal of exchanging knowledge with the women weavers, in an atmosphere of solidarity and support.

In October 2023, Véronique Tesseraud was honored as a Chevalier of the National Order of Merit of the French Republic, an award she received from the French Embassy in Mexico. This recognition was granted for her outstanding contribution to textile art in France and Mexico, as well as for her efforts in promoting the creative and economic autonomy of Indigenous Maya weavers in Chiapas.

This recognition was awarded for her outstanding contribution to textile art in France and Mexico, and for her efforts to promote the creative and economic autonomy of Indigenous Maya weavers in Chiapas.

Ana Rosa González de la Cruz, from Zinacantán whose mother tongue is Tsotsil, is a bridge between the women weavers and the women in the association's office. She is the interlocutor and translator for meetings, workshops and other ECLA activities. Her duties also include being responsible for the administrative side of the organization.

She began her collaboration with the El Camino de los Altos association in 2009 as an intern while she was studying for a degree in Human Development in San Cristóbal de las Casas, which helped her acquire knowledge and skills that she still applies in her activities within the association.

ECLA's operational team is made up of 100% women, 5 of the 8 belong to groups from the highlands of Chiapas, carrying out administrative and logistical work, quality control and communication with the different groups from the headquarters in San Cristobal de las Casas.

The 130 artisan women who are part of El Camino de los Altos come from the municipalities of Chamula, San Andrés Larrainzar, Pantelho, Oxchuc, and Zinacantán; towns located in the mountains of the Highlands of Chiapas.

The women weave at home: the time they spend weaving on their pre-Hispanic backstrap loom is integrated into their daily basis, their life rhythm, and that of their community.