Nuestros Diseños no son Domínio Público: The fight for Mayan Intellectual Property Rights in Guatemala

Author: Alondra Jara

During a protest, Maya Weavers carry a sign that says “The textile created by Indigenous Peoples are patrimony of Indigenous Peoples.” Photo: AFEDES

Although the theft of Mayan textile design has been covered by the media within the last few years, it has been happening for a long time. In Guatemala, it was not uncommon for business owners to enter Casa Flor Ixaco, a Mayan women’s collective, ask for samples of their work, then leave and never return. They have been known to advertise the fabrics as done by the collective and ethically sold to help these communities, but use chemical dyes and industrialized thread while producing large quantities and profiting tremendously compared to the women at Casa Flor Ixaco.

More and more international companies as well as non-indigenous Guatemalan designers have been found selling products featuring Mayan designs or even advertising their products as “inspired by” Guatemalan textiles. Some prices are incredibly high for pieces created by high fashion designers, while other businesses mass produce their products and sell them cheaper to tourists or in foreign countries. Sometimes they even use images of these women without their permission to advertise their textiles and convince buyers they are handmade by these women who are fairly compensated. Previously there were no laws or groups to fight these issues, but within the last decade more people have started fighting for Mayan intellectual property rights.

Ethical Fashion Guatemala has since been created to allow customers to buy directly from Mayan weavers while pushing Etsy and other websites to remove content by filing copyright protection notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Signed by President Clinton in 1998, it uses the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty while resolving other copyrights issues that were present at the time. Although Ethical Fashion Guatemala was started by two Americans as a way to give Guatemalans access to the resources they may not have, Mayan women have also played a large role in fighting for their rights as artisans.

            In March 2017, The National Movement of Maya Weavers filed legal action and introduced a bill that would recognize their intellectual property rights in Guatemala. The bill seeks to reform 5 legal articles on the Law on Copyright and Related Rights, the Law on Industrial Property, the Law on Protection and Development of Crafts and the Criminal Code.

According to Angelina Aspuac, a member of AFEDES (Asociación Femenina para el Desarrollo de Sacatepéquez) a weaver and university law student, “We must protect our textile knowledge just as we protect our territories. Intellectual property protection is a fundamental dimension of autonomy.”

Jovita Tzul Tzul, a Mayan lawyer, says, “Our clothes, when we wear them, are little better than trapos [rags],” she told me. “When they are worn by white bodies they become something beautiful.” The is societal pressure for women not to wear their huipiles, as indigenous peoples in Latin America often face racism. Even when companies claim to fairly compensate weavers for their work, informal surveys conducted by AFEDES found that most women are given between 50 cents -$20 for both their new and used huipiles.

Many might argue that other artists have the right to be inspired by their designs and should be free to sell them, but their designs hold deep and often spiritual meaning. You can imagine how people would feel about religious symbols like the cross or the Star of Davis being placed on clothing in inappropriate ways. Angelina Aspuac says, “To see your fabric from your community that has a spiritual purpose used on a shoe in the U.S. and abroad, it’s extremely offensive. Our designs are not public domain.”

These weavers, however, should have the same rights as other artists and designers to protect their work and be able to profit from it. Could you imagine someone trying to repurpose and sell Nike freely and blatantly in the United States? Nike would have the resources to sue that person for trying to profit from their design, but unfortunately the laws do not clearly protect these weavers to the same extent that they can in the United States. The government as well as major tourism businesses push back against these activists and their attempts because of the profit they have to lose from no longer being able to exploit their images and work.

            Purchasing Mayan textiles is not wrong, but if you are someone who is interested in their work, try to do very thorough research on the business before buying from them. Try asking them specific questions about where and from who they purchase as well as asking how much their artists are compensated. By buying ethically, you can give proper compensation and credit to Mayan artists and prevent their exploitation.

Author Bio: Alondra Jara is a student at IUPUI where she is pursuing a degree in Anthropology with a certificate in Museum Studies.