Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez first organized an informal project in the 1970s with weaver friends in Chinchero, an Andean village near Cusco, Peru. As the traditional skills and distinctive styles of indigenous weavers declined in her village and others like it, the project grew into the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco. CTTC organizes groups of elder, adult, and young weavers to develop and pass on their skills; the organization also has a marketplace of handmade products on their website and on the Avenida del Sol in Cusco.
Nilda spoke with us from her home in Cusco, Peru. In the middle of their second winter of the pandemic in the Southern Hemisphere, we talked about what COVID has meant for weavers there and how textile lovers can still have a relationship with weaving communities.
This episode is sponsored by WEBS - America's Yarn Store.