Fair Trade Fashion and Design

Provedencia Sculpture Garden, Santiago, Chile

Things become even more interesting when I began interviewing boutique vendors and citizens of Santiago, the design and culture capital of Chile and the Chol Chol Foundation’s priority target market.  I noticed a surprising lack of Mapuche textiles or goods across all the traditional artisan shops in touristy locations.  There were explicit messages from citizens and implicit messages from shop inventories that the Mapuche culture was apart from Chilean culture, and that the Mapuche faced discrimination both in social perceptions and the marketplaces.  People interviewed across Santiago did not perceive the Mapuche people as educated or artistic, and did understand why I had chosen to work with them.  Many explained to me that anti-Mapuche racism is deeply rooted in the Chilean culture and was one of the major obstacles the Mapuche people faced in entering the design market here.

Opinionated Chilean at a BBQ in Southern Santiago, "Why the Mapuche?"

“But their cultural history is not interesting or artistic, why do you want to design with them?” – The man pictured above.

“People don’t want to hire [Mapuche] because they are not seen as good workers, because they are angry that they are forced to be menial workers in a country that was once theirs […] I don’t mean to be racist the facts are the facts, they are at the lowest levels of society, in terms of money and education” – Philipp K.

“Here in Santiago, the women have deep pockets but how do you say it?  They will not spend on Mapuche.” – Anya K.

Though many talked about discrimination, most did not feel that way. People I spoke to – most importantly shop owners – were quite interested in hearing more about the project. Read the rest of this entry »