Rosa Pariona produces small stuffed animals, typical of Peru, made from
different types of wool: alpaca and sheep, for example. The animals are common
Peruvian animals like guinea pigs, vicuñas, llamas, rabbits, and chicks. She
also makes hats and gloves, throw rugs, and seat cushions from the same wool.
“Anything that can be made from wool and skins, I make. I can sew anything!” Her most popular product is the vicuñas. She has had her workshop since
1984.
Rosa is from Huancayo, a city in the mountains approximately 8 hours
from Lima. She never knew her mother; she and her two sisters were raised by
her father. One sister now lives in Lima, the other in Italy. Rosa learned all
of her artesanía skills from her father, who, she says, knew how to make
nearly anything. “He didn’t make large quantities of products but rather made
many different types of products, all beautiful. In addition to making bags,
clothing, rings, hats, he was skilled in carpentry and also built houses. He
really knew how to work!”
She married and had nine children. Rosa’s husband began to drink
heavily and treat her very badly, including selling their comfortable, 2-story
home in Huancayo without telling her and without giving her any of the proceeds
from the sale. She realized she had to leave.
She had land where she grew vegetables (the chacra),
apart from their home in Huancayo. “When he started to drink and treat me
badly, I thought, where am I going to go? Am I going to go to the chacra?
No, because the kids didn’t know how to farm. I have to go to Lima for the
opportunities.”
She left with her nine children, ranging in age from 5 to 15. They left
with just the clothes on their backs, without even money. They slept on
cardboard “beds” on the floor of an empty house for three months near the
center of Lima. She sold drinks and ice cream, anything she could sell to begin
saving a little money.
Pictured
inside Rosa’s workshop left to right, Rosa’s husband, son, daughter and Rosa
Soon, however, Rosa realized she needed to move her family. There was a
lot of unsafe behavior near their home, and her kids were frightened. A friend told her that in Huaycán, on the
outskirts of the district of Lima, there was available land. Rosa commented, “I like the climate here.
There is always sun in Huaycán, it never rains. It’s good for drying out the
skins.” So they moved to Huaycán and
spent one year living on the hillside, a place where the poorest of the poor
make their homes. The hillsides rarely have access to utilities and life is a
barebones existence.
She had slowly
started to construct their house; they had a roof but no walls. An earthquake
caused her neighbor’s house to fall onto hers. It destroyed their home
and almost buried them there too. While they went to the clinic to have their
injuries examined and treated, all of their belongings were stolen. She had to
start over, yet again.
Rosa’s big break was when a buyer from Ten Thousand Villages ordered
10,000 stuffed alpacas and gave her a $5,000 advance. “With that money I was
able to buy land in Huaycán and start building our own home. He took a chance
on me, giving me that money without really knowing me. I was really grateful.”
Rosa pictured in the storefront area of her workshop along with some of her best selling alpaca items.
Her son Enrique built the workshop for her. The front room is a small
store, showcasing the artesanía produced inside as well as selling soft drinks
and water to neighbors. Rosa commented, “He deliberately made the front room
with a curved wall so that a large window could be placed there, bringing in a
lot of light to the store to more beautifully display our products.”
Rosa is quite a businesswoman.
She makes the most of her storefront where she sells different types of
artesanía: her own products and those of her children. She also sells drinks, snacks, has a payphone
that is accessible from outside her shop 24 hours a day and makes copies of
documents for a small fee.
Rosa later remarried, had two more children, and her husband now works
with her in the business. She designs all of her products and has taught her
husband the skills needed to work in the workshop. She likes everything about
running her business, from the drying of the skins to the sewing and stuffing;
even the quality control. “While it takes a lot of time to do quality control
and correct items when necessary, it is expensive to have others do it and it
isn’t done as well.”
She currently has 9 workers, in addition to herself: three are family
members (her husband and two of her oldest children). The six others perform
their work in their homes, coming and going from the workshop as needed to pick
up materials and drop off completed products. The workers are evenly split
between men and women.
When we visited, everyone was working on an order for Manos Amigas, to
be sent to Ten Thousand Villages, of 1,000 small stuffed vicuñas and 300 larger
stuffed alpaca dolls.
She explained the process: they buy the skins, clean them, then dry
them. After they are dried, they draw the design on the skin and sew the animal
together. They stuff the animal and comb the outside wool. Depending on the
preferences of the client, they either use the natural color of the vicuñas or
they dye parts of the vicuña.
While she has always been involved in artesanía in one form or
another, before starting her own business she made little bags, jackets, socks.
She also spent a lot of time in her chacra, tending to her crops. “I
have worked so hard to provide my kids with food and clothes and an education.”
All of her children are artisans and are skilled in various forms of artesanía
in addition to working with leather and wool. Some carve wood, others carve
gourds or make beaded jewelry. Even her youngest, a 15 year old who is still in
school, is skilled at artesanía, making beaded bracelets. Rosa is proud
that they each can support themselves with these skills from her family.
Her orders have lowered since the economic crisis started. Whereas she
used to produce 15,000 vicuñas per year for clients, she now receives orders
for approximately 6,000 vicuñas annually. When she doesn’t have many orders,
she augments her income by preparing typical Peruvian food to sell such as cuy
(guinea pig) and pachamanca (a dish of meats and potatoes, cooked
underground). She rents a kiosk nearby when she has food to sell.
A local parish often has international visitors who come and place
orders after seeing her products in her store. These are smaller orders, though,
dozens of products instead of thousands.
She explained that she doesn’t have a store in Miraflores, the main
neighborhood in Lima that tourists visit, due to the high costs involved. “How
am I going to survive if I have to pay out all that money? People come and make
small orders from our store here. And every few months I receive an order from
Manos Amigas for about 2,000-3,000 vicuñas. I appreciate that Manos Amigas
immediately pays me, since then I can go back and immediately pay my workers.
They always give me an advance, too, without asking.”
Manos Amigas is her primary client. Rosa appreciates that Manos Amigas
treats her well and always fulfills their promises. They are very prompt with
their communications. “They are part of my family,” she says.
Rosa can point to very specific ways that her life has changed and
improved since she has worked with Manos Amigas. Going from sleeping on
cardboard boxes with nine children, with no support from her ex-husband, to
building a home and workshop, running a successful business and ensuring that
all her children were educated as well as learning the family trade, even after
having had to restart from scratch several times… Rosa is resilient!
Rosa's son built her storefront, workshop, and home (all-in-one) which is pictured above. She has certainly come a long way from the cardboard boxes she slept on with her children when she first moved to Lima.
Rosa generously presented Simon with a small stuffed vicuna as a gift during our visit.