Dear friends:

This message is an invitation to collaborate with the project “Casa Comunitaria del Algodón de Charalá” (Community house of cotton and textiles in Charalá). Charalá is the name of the village where we intend to develop this project. It is a rural municipio of the department of Santander, located in the Oriental Cordillera of the Colombian Andes.

This initiative has been designed by an association of more than sixty women and ten men who are working together at the “Corporación de Recuperación Comunera del Lienzo” (The Comunera Corporation for the Revival of the Traditional Cotton Textiles). It’s important to realize how much this source of employment means for the women involved in terms of their independence and income, for this region suffers from high unemployment, a tradition of male dominance and an almost complete lack of opportunities for paid work for women.

The products of the “Corporación” have won a deserved reputation as a valuable revival of a traditional handicraft. In addition to this, the “Corporación” has contributed to revitalization of a cultural tradition that was about to disappear, but could be preserved thanks to the relations established with the last cotton weavers.

The members of the “Corporación” have also been interested in the study of former plant dyeing techniques and have been keen on using and cultivating organic cotton. The few men who work with the association are mainly cotton growers. The cotton production takes place partly in Charalá and also in the neighbouring village of Barichara, due to the fact that access to land is quite limited for poor peasants (the region is in hands of sugar cane and cattle hacienda owners) and also because of the lack of support for this new activity by most men.

Presently, the “Corporación” doesn’t have premises of its own from which to operate its central activities and to store its products and thus must rent a small house in the village. The cooperation of the German NGO “Pan para el Mundo” is coming to an end, which may cause a difficult period for the organization.

In spite of all these difficulties, the experience and reputation gathered over all these years have ensured satisfactory outlets for the organization’s products, particularly during the yearly Bogotá handicraft fair. The “Corporación” also sells all the year long in Charalá to the tourists who come and visit this region which is quite famous for its beautiful landscapes and fine traditional architecture. This hand-crafted production is now very well rooted in the region. As a clear proof of this is the fact that it has been progressing for the last twenty years. The creation of the “Casa Comunitaria” would strengthen even more this tendency.

All these reasons advocate for the creation of a “Casa Comunitaria del Algodón y los Tejidos” (the Community House of Cotton and Textiles) in Charalá. A project aimed at creating such a place has been elaborated by the “Corporation”, with the help of an anthropologist who has been accompanying the process of the women of Charalá during 18 years. The original text of this project is annexed to this writing, as well as photographs, maps, the statutes of the Corporación.

The creation of a “Casa Comunitaria del Algodón y los Tejidos” in Charalá may be advocated for all these reasons. A project aimed at creating such a place has been drawn up by the “Corporación”, with the help of an anthropologist who has been assisting the women of Charalá for 18 years. The original text of this project as well as photographs, maps and the statutes of the Corporación can be found on the website http://pwp.etb.net.co/pierreraymond/Pages/ProyectoCasaComunitaria.htm.

For many years, we cherished the hope that the township of Charalá might want to sponsor this project, rewarding it with some plot of land, house or location where to stabilize its activity. We had forgotten quite naively that male politicians would be unlikely to be interested in female entrepreneurial activity, or that rich people would care to promote poor people’s economic activity; here, as in many other parts of the country, politics usually serves the interests of those who dominate the social and economic life of the region, namely, the landlords…

We also hoped for some time that the NGOs operating in Colombia might be able to help. Unfortunately, NGOs are generally reluctant to invest in construction. Additionally, in a country in a state of war, such as is unfortunately the case of Colombia, NGOs centre their attention on displaced populations, and lack funds and staff to cope with this kind of project, which is irrelevant to their mission in this country, whereas it would attract their attention in other national contexts. In addition, presently a high proportion of available funds are being concentrated in Africa and Eastern Europe, thus reducing what used to be directed to this part of the world.

This is a project that could contribute to undermining the conditions that support the conflict presently suffered by Colombia, by offering prospects of work and harmony. It would allow the “Corporación” to:

Have stable premises for its central workshop and provide adequate space for storage and for organizational activities.

• Have a satisfactory site for technical training as well as social and cultural activities.
• Consolidate its presence and activities in the municipio of Charalá.
• Create a museum introducing the regional history of cotton growing and of the textile cottage industry as well as its present revival.
• Attract tourists, which will improve the organization’s sales (The “Casa Comunitaria” will include a shop).
• Develop training and cultural activities for local schools.

It has not been possible so far to obtain the funds to build the house for the Corporación. Once these funds have been obtained, it will be easier to seek other forms of aid to continue with the further aims of the project for the Community House of Cotton and Textiles (the Corporación has no capacity to invest from its own resources: the product of the members’ work just allows them to improve the satisfaction of their very basic needs, but does not enable them to build up a savings fund).

For all the above reasons, we have decided, as a last possibility, to turn towards you, friends and friends of friends, who live in countries which enjoy incomparably higher levels of living than the inhabitants of this region of Colombia.

Thus we are going to try to raise 25,000 to 30,000 US dollars, channelling them through a few people in Canada, Great Britain, Belgium, Spain, Germany, the United States, Switzerland and France. This is the amount we have considered necessary to complete the first phase of the Corporación’s project, i.e. buying either a house in Charalá or a plot of land and building a house of approximately 150 square meters and endowing it with the basic necessary facilities.

It is quite possible that we may not gather sufficient resources to complete the project, in which case we would choose to buy a plot of land in the outskirts of Charalá. We would then have plans made by an architect aware of the fact so that even an incomplete construction may be functional.

If more than expected is raised, the surplus would be allocated to further aspects of the project, such as may be viewed in the annexed detailed plan.

The donors will be able to follow on the website the evolution of the fund and the buying of the plot or the house and whatever other phase of the project is undertaken. Photographs and scanned documents will be included. A list of donors will be posted in the Communal House, unless you ask for your name not to appear.

As we don’t have so many friends abroad, and as 25,000-30,000 US dollars is quite a lot of money for so few people, we do hope donations could be relatively high. This will help to ease the task of the volunteers who will be helping in each of the countries involved. We would like to ask the donors to find friends who might want to participate. This will contribute to getting the project more widely known, and give an opportunity to talk about Colombia in different terms of those usually heard (drugs and violence) and give the opportunity to show a different aspect of a country in which silently and far from the limelight, many men and women strive to build a better future, free of a false conception of growth and of the kinds of “aids” which only produce more violence and a worsening of the problems this country suffers.

May I insist to circulate this text amongst your friends and acquaintances so we may obtain the necessary amount of donors?

Thanks to all those who in some way or another, will contribute to realizing the project, whether I know them or not, in which case I do hope to get to know them some day in Colombia, hopefully visiting the “Community House of Cotton and Textiles” in Charalá.

Yours sincerely

Pierre Raymond,

• Carrera 3 No 12-68 (apt. 301), Bogotá, Colombia, South America.
• POB: AA 9.305, Bogotá
• Tel/Fax (571) 561 91 59 Tel 282 20 48 Tel office 342 50 90
• Universidad Javeriana, Facultad de Estudios Ambientales y Rurales, Bogotá
• Tel: (571) 320 83 20 (ext. 4816)
• In France: 29 rue Berlioz, 92 330, Sceaux Tel/Fax : (331) 43 50 61 25
• E-mail: praymond77@yahoo.mx
• Website: http://pwp.etb.net.co/pierreraymond

Donations can be sent to the following bank account:

Bank: Bancafé.

Office: Charalá.

Address: Calle 25 Nº 16-89, Charalá, Santander, Colombia.

Phone numbers of the Charalá local office: (57) 7 725 83 03 and (57) 7 725 80 29

Account name: Corporación de Recuperación Comununera del Lienzo- Casa Comunitaria del Algodón.

Account number: Nº 406-09772-5.

Swift code of the bank: CAFECOBB

Post-script:

Who is Pierre Raymond?

By Florence Gauthier

For those who don’t know the person who is organizing this project let me tell you Pierre Raymond is a social scientist who has been living in Colombia since 1979, and has been working on the country’s rural problems. He has undertaken in Colombia, his adopted country, several studies of rural economy, sociology and history. He also has been teaching at university subjects related to these topics to students in economics, rural development and forestry.

One of the research works he has completed in the Santander department, concerns a traditional cottage industry which was then about to fall in disuse. It relates the history of cotton growing and textile production. It gives an overview of the agronomic, economic and social aspects of this activity and describes the traditional techniques of spinning and weaving. It all started while undertaken field work on another investigation (traditional production of sugar cane and brown sugar), he accidentally met three old ladies that were processing cotton fibre by ancient techniques.

The results of this research were published in three places (two editions of « Vida y muerte del algodón y los textiles santandereanos », Universidad Javeriana, 1981, new and revised edition, editorial Ecoe, 1989; « Historia del algodón en Santander », Banco de la República, 1990). Later on, two other researchers studied other aspects of the local textile production and new information was thus published. (Beatriz Granados: « Visión Histórico Cultural del Trabajo Textil en Charalá », Colcultura, 1991 and  « Tejidos Charaleños », Colcultura, 1994; Beatriz Devia (« Colores de la Naturaleza para el Algodón », Fondo FEN, 1996).

These researches caught the attention of a Belgian NGO social worker, who then undertook a first effort to revive the home made production of cotton fabric as part of the programme of adapted rural education. Later on, a German NGO known in Colombia as “Pan para el Mundo” took over this endeavour. This organization accompanied for several years efforts to improve the quality and diversity of home made cotton products. It also helped to form an organization of people involved in the cultivation of cotton plants and in textile production, now known as the « Corporación de Recuperación Comunera del Lienzo » (Corporation for the Revival of the Traditional Cotton Textiles).

Florence Gauthier, History Professor, University of Paris VII

“Comunera” refers on the one hand to the collective, the community aspect of the project.On the other hand, it alludes to a local historic event, of great national importance: the so-called seventeenth century anticolonialist “Comunero” upheaval, which announced the coming of the independences. The main leader of this uprising, José Antonio Galán, was a native of Charalá.

“Corporation” doesn't refer to any big corporate business. It's a Colombian legal figure that permits people who do not dispose of capital resources to create a non-profit association. According to the statutes of the « Corporación de Recuperación Comunera del Lienzo », its aim is to “work for the rescue of traditional cotton textiles and hand weaving as well as to carry out projects and activities related to the conservation of natural resources (…) all this aiming at the well-being and the development of its members and of the community at large”.

You may find details about the long-term project of the Corporación on the website http://pwp.etb.net.co/pierreraymond/Pages/ProyectoCasaComunitariaEntrada1.htm. You will also find there information about the Charalá region and the production of cotton texiles (enter « publicaciones », then click on the cover of the books « Vida y muerte del algodón y los textiles santandereanos », « Historia del algodón en Santander » and « Hacienda tradicional y aparcería »).

If the “Corporación” were to be dissolved its statutes indicate that its assets would be transferred to an “a similar non profit organization”.

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