Handwoven Household Textile

Claribel has recently graduated from public high school in Worcester and excels at weaving this type of bright, colorful household textile of the sort she knew in Guatemala. Her way of making these cloths is notable: she video chats with her mother and younger sister who are both in Guatemala while she herself weaves on her back strap loom in Worcester. Claribel's mother advises her on the sequence of thread colors for her cloths. Claribel is also pleased that her little sister is learning to weave. This whole weaving scene illustrates something very common among Worcester’s refugee resettlement communities: they are often in video contact and video conversation with relatives back in their countries of origin or in refugee camps.