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Artefino: Empowering Women Artisans in the Countryside
All it took to start the trailblazing Artefino were five ladies of passion and commitment, three of whom, joined us in a special episode of PairFect, the online show of the DAILY TRIBUNE. [gallery columns="4" size="full" ids="176285,176284,176283,176282"] These ladies are achievers in their own right and have been at the forefront of causes that have continuously benefited the society. Mita Rufino has been the top honcho of the Filipino Heritage Festival which has been going on for 20 years. Maritess Pineda was president of the number one Zonta chapter in this part of the country and region, Zonta Club of Makati and Environs. For the longest time, she was engaged in the export business and was active with the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions, the export promotion arm of the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry. Cedie Vargas heads the Lopez Group Foundation and is the executive director of the Lopez Museum and Library. [caption id="attachment_176287" align="aligncenter" width="789"] Fiesta throw blankets. | Photograph Courtesy of Ig/abel Philippines[/caption] Our interview article with the three ladies, which we started yesterday, continues in this issue. Here follows our interesting exchange. DAILY TRIBUNE (DT): Tell us about your personal passions outside of Artefino. What else keeps you occupied. Mita: I’m with the Filipino Heritage Festival. We work with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. We have our programs and events throughout the Philippines. Our main objective is to bring awareness of our cultural heritage to the whole country if we can. One of our major projects is the Youth Forum participated in by around 60 young students. Last May, we had it in Negros Occidental and we had six cities that joined in. We are trying to make them aware about the different heritage and all forms of cultural heritage, tangible or intangible, in their own areas. We get reports now from them and we discuss how we are going to help them out. This is something which I feel is going to be quite interesting for the youth. We will be 20 years old next year. We’re hoping to go to Ilocos. We would also like to work with Artefino because Artefino is part of our heritage. For next year, another project will focus on our local trees, indigenous hardwood and local. We’re working with the Metropolitan Museum for that one. And, of course, I am active in church and with the Zonta. My time is really full from morning to evening. Sometimes I just ask myself, “Wow, what will I do now? I have to report this, I have to report that.” That’s what’s keeping me quite busy. Maritess: I think what has helped me a lot in doing my share in Artefino is the fact that I was 20 years with CITEM. In the beginning when we were starting in my export business, I would ask the support of CITEM. It gave me a very good perspective of how it is to come up with fairs like this. We used to do it here and abroad. I was 20 years in export and I was part of the board of CITEM for quite a number of years. I was among the pioneers during the time of Mina Gabor, who was the one who trained me. She was the one who trained me how to give a talk to 3,000 women and producers from Bacolod. I refused at first but they said, “No, you will just talk to a few people in a small room.” So, I agree but, at the CCP, I found out there were 3,000 women. Sabi ko doon sa asawa ko, “You stay at the back. Then you will be the only one I will look at and no one else.” I really picked up a lot of things from Mina. She really made our handicraft industry very strong. And because of that, I was able to bring that know-how into this fair. Other than that, I’m very active in the arts. I have been a collector since 1972. That’s my passion. Also, being the granddaughter of Amang Rodriguez, serving the community is really part of my DNA. It is really second nature for us, we in the Artefino, to do anything we could to empower women and their communities so that they could be self-sufficient by putting up their own social enterprises. Something that would inspire their children to follow suit and not leave their parents’ and grandparents’ crafts for another profession or livelihood. Cedie: I think the best way to describe me is just like an arts and culture advocate. And that sort of ties everything that I do whether it’s in the media or the Lopez group foundation including the Lopez Museum and Library and other foundations outside of the Lopez Group. But what excites me is when I can tie all these together into a few projects. One of the bigger advocacies of the Lopez Group is environmentalism. Whether you’re saving the marine reefs or mangroves or saving the trees. They intertwine and it’s exciting when you are able to create a project that will marry all your different advocacies. You know, you have passion, you have commitment in what you are doing. DT: Tell us about your family lives. Are you mothers? Are you grandmothers? Are you single? Mita: I am single now. I just lost my husband two and a half years ago. I have four kids. Three girls, two of them in London, and one boy. My daughter, Maritoni, is a ballerina and she teaches ballet. My son, Chino, anchors a sport show and he promotes motorcycles. Maritess: I have four children. One is abroad working in hotels. And three of them are here. I already have three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Now that they’re all grown up. I have time for all these things. I’m free to do what I want. Cedie: I’m a mother. I’m a grandmother. I have four children and four grandchildren. By the end of the year, I will have six grandchildren. I think what I’m trying to define now is my role as a grandmother. I involve my children and even my grandchildren in this advocacy that I have. Whatever it is that I strongly believe in, I try to expose them to that. Two of my children are with the Lopez group. DT: Can you tell us about someone, a craftswoman, you have empowered? Maritess: We can tell you that we started our first grantee, Sarah Juan, for our Artefino Foundation. Mita: We helped this one designer because she is really good. Cedie: And enterprising. Mita: She works with the community in Davao. Mita: She was our first beneficiary. They were able to come up with a line-up of jackets that were beaded and that sold very well in Artefino. She has two stores now — one in Rockwell and the other in Greenbelt. Cedie: A lot of our brand partners have amazing stories. That’s what interested us in them. That’s why we put up Artefino and the Artefino Foundation because of their amazing stories. DT: It turned out there are a lot of creative Filipinos. Cedie: Yeah. They just need that extra push. Yeah. DT: This year, who will Artefino benefit? Maritess: Well, like we have Anya Lim. She’s from Cebu. Actually, we visited the place. We visited the area, her community and we saw how the ladies, mostly elders, work and help one another. Mita: That particular lady, said to me, “Ma’am, now I can buy a TV because I have already sent my apos to school. Now it’s for me naman to have a television.” Cedie: They are trying to teach us how to weave. We tried. It’s so hard. Mita: It’s a great workout, though. Maritess: Kailangan ng great coordination, eh. Kamay at paa. Mita: You have to move with the rhythm of the loom. Maritess: It was very nice talking with them because they were really telling us their whole stories. Cedie: They were sharing as mothers. They invited us to go back. Maritess: Kasi they were able to send their children and grandchildren to school. So, malaking bagay, 'di ba? Now that the children know that they could earn on weaving, they are willing to learn the trade. Mita: What we’re hearing in different places is that even the men, when they come home in the evening, help out also. Cedie: You know, the men have actually strong hands. The weaves are tighter. DT: What makes this edition of Artefino special? Mita: We are into reused, recycled and repurposed products. Actually, the original person who did all these years ago was Patis Tesoro. She was the epitome of all this without calling it repurpose or recycle. Basta she would pick up any kind of material. Puwedeng kurtina, puwedeng mantel. She would put it together, buburdahan niya. And because of that, we decided to feature her here as the Ms. Patis Tesoro. DT: Thank you very much. It has been our pleasure. We are happy that you have helped a lot of women and at the same time are paying tribute to trailblazing women like Patis Tesoro. With you, ladies, there is indeed hope for our countrymen, especially our creative industry workers in the mountains and seashores of our country. Mabuhay kayong lahat! The post Artefino: Empowering Women Artisans in the Countryside appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
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