Culture appropriation is a controversial topic, but when it affects an entire community’s economy, it becomes criminal. Companies are buying samples of Maya products made by Guatemalan artisans and mass producing their own. They then claim their products are authentic and handmade by the women in Guatemala.
These business owners lying about the authenticity of their products use cheaper material and sell them at higher prices online. Meanwhile, the Maya artisans only have their physical stores to sell their merchandise. And even then, many times they have to sell their products at a lower price than expected.
Some of these companies use images of Maya women to give their brand a more authentic look. When confronted, most remove the images, but others prefer to fight back despite the harm they cause. There are hundreds of thousands of fake artisanal products online that infringe copyright laws.
The other issue with buying imitation merch is that the consumer never knows in what conditions their products were created. Exploitation of foreign workers is a reality in the fashion industry. But the Guatemalan artisans do this craft because it’s a tradition – the only work they’ve known their entire life.
Fortunately, these women do have groups of people dedicated to helping in their struggle to keep the Maya artisan patrimony alive. Ethical Fashion Guatemala is a new website created by Kara Goebel and James Dillon. They’re two Americans who run a small tourism business together.
After local craftsmen and artisans reached out to Goebel and Dillon, they decided to help them set up an online shop. They’re even using the 1998 Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) to place formal complaints of websites selling fake merchandise. Etsy has over 60,000 imitation Guatemalan products on their site, and the only way consumers can take them down is by shopping with a conscience.
Dillon and Goebel only receive ten percent of earnings for their help with the online store. They’re not in it for the money – they even teach some of the Guatemalan people to use the internet and set up websites. Although it’s hard to imagine being able to help these people from home, it is possible.
Informing yourself is the first step. Shopping at family-owned stores instead of corporations is the second and most important step. The third is to raise awareness of the issue because it is not new and won’t go away if the consumer agrees to let it be.