Women can too

“In Guatemala it has always been about men—men working and men achieving things. Well, this just shows that women can too.”

These were the words spoken by Yolanda Yat, the President of Nu’Kem, as she thanked members of the sponsoring organizations on behalf of the association for the $6,000 prize we had just won. The statement was met by a round of applause from the more than 100 people in attendance, including members of the press, other finalists, representatives from the Guatemalan government, and directors of NGOs. Standing at the podium in front of a packed conference room mostly full of Guatemalan men in suits, Yolanda, dressed in her finest Tamahú traje reserved only for special occasions, beamed with pride. And I, just as full of pride for her and all the women of Nu’Kem, let my applause and whistles rise above the crowd.

Back in February, along with over 100 other hopeful businesses, Nu’Kem entered the “Premio a la Productividad Rural” competition. The Premio is a nationwide competition sponsored mainly by AGER (Asociación Gremial del Empresariado Rural) and funded mostly by the World Bank that looks to financially reward small and medium sized businesses in rural Guatemala that work to alleviate poverty and are economically sustainable. Two years ago Nu’Kem was a finalist but finished just one place out of the prize money. We were determined to win this year.

So we meticulously filled out all the endless pages of the application, sent in our financial statements, and discussed how we would use the money. To serve as a daily reminder of our goal, I wrote, “¡Vamos a ganar!” on the promotional poster and taped it to the wall (well, actually I hot-glued it to the wall…tape doesn’t function so well in the rainy Alta climate). And we waited.

A little over three weeks ago, we were informed that we had made it past the first cut. We were among the 25 businesses moving on to the next round. AGER sent a handful of representatives out to Tactic. They surveyed the condition of the store and our assets. They poured over our facturas, sales records, libro de actas, client lists, estatuas, and inventory files. They asked questions and we answered them. They left. And we waited.

On May 13th, AGER invited us to participate in the final round and exposition to be held at the Conquistador Hotel in the capital on May 15th. Eleven businesses remained and five would walk away with $6,000 a piece. We packed up the Land Rover with products and promotional material and headed to the capital.

The day of the exposition was long and anxiety ridden. From 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., a panel of five judges individually worked their way around the conference room from booth to booth drilling each finalist with a litany of questions. Yolanda and Hermelinda answered the judges’ inquiries with certainty, charm, and wit not commonly associated with indigenous women. I piped in every now and then to supplement information, but I let them do the vast majority of the talking. They were amazing and had the judges eating out of the palm of their hands.

Interestingly, a question that was posed to us by every judge (who were all men, by the way) was, “We all know that Guatemala is full of machismo. How do your husbands feel? How do they deal with you being so independent?” (Nu’Kem was the only finalist composed completely of women, so I am sure it was a question not asked to the other groups.) Yolanda would answer that in the beginning the husbands saw the association as somewhat of a joke but have since realized the huge benefit of the income the women are generating for their families and are now very supportive. I would always throw out a response along the lines of, “It’s about damn time women in Guatemala have the opportunity to be economically independent. The men can get over it.” I am sure a statement like that would get me labeled as a raging feminist in the states.

After the rounds of questioning, it was time for waiting again—waiting for the judges to make their decision and waiting for the awards presentation to start. The ceremony that was scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. “en punto” didn’t kick off until about 5:50. And even after the presentation started it was still more waiting—waiting for every representative from every sponsoring organization to give a speech and waiting for the national anthem to finish. (Now I realize why Lisa, the girl that works in the Nu’Kem store, hated Mondays when she was in school because they had to sing the national anthem. It is torturously long. I think it clocks in at over 10 minutes. Every time I thought it was finally coming to a close another verse would start up again to the point that I envisioned that the rest of my life would be spent standing there listening to the Guatemalan national anthem.) The waiting was killing us. Yolanda was sweating profusely, I was eating every refacción I could get my hands on, and Hermelinda looked on the verge of tears.

Finally the time came to announce the winners. The three of us sat hand in sweaty hand hoping not to hear “Nu’Kem” as the presenter named off the six runner-ups. He didn’t say Nu’Kem! We had won! Yolanda looked in a daze, my heart skipped a beat, and Hermelinda actually started crying. When “Asociación de Artesanas Textiles Nu’Kem” was called (we finished in third place overall), the three of us went to the front together to accept the check and pose for the news cameras. My heart was swelling with pride for the women of Nu’Kem. It still is.

Earlier when the Guatemalan national anthem started playing, I hesitated to put my hand on my heart. I felt awkward giving my allegiance to another country’s national hymn. With a smile, Yolanda turned to me and said, “Usted es Guatemalteca por dos años. Ponga la mano sobre su corazón.” So I might be Guatemalan for two years and accustomed to measuring success by small Guatemalan-sized accomplishments, but this was the American-sized achievement for which I had been waiting. But I certainly can’t take credit for it on my own. This victory was the accumulation of the assistance given to Nu’Kem by many different NGOs and the three years of hard work put in by PCV Jee Kim, my predecessor. But far more than anything, this award was won as a result of the unceasing efforts and determination of the remarkable weavers of Nu’Kem, who are daily proving that women can too.