Guadalajara Jalisco. – After years of unheard-of effort, Lorena Ron proudly shows the crochet of more than 8 thousand square meters that today covers the Mexican town of Etzatlan, Jalisco, made by the collective woven sky, a group of women and men who with this work have achieved a Guinness record and participate in the Dubai Expo.
A dozen women talk and laugh together as the plastic thread that reaches their hands turns into colorful rugs the size of an abdomen and that together form a large crochet pavilion that will be hung somewhere in Mexico.
The “Cielowoven” collective, made up of some 150 women and men, has managed to ensure that their work not only covers the streets of their native Etzatlán, in the western state of Jalisco, but has also obtained a Guinness World Records being considered the largest fabric pavilion in the world with almost 3,000 square meters.
A similar piece made by them with 900 square meters was also intervened and exhibited at Expo 2020 in Dubai to show Mexican art.
Lorena Ron, leader of the collective, told Efe that what began as an offering of a religious nature became a large-scale creative work that they did not imagine how far it would go or what it would mean for that organization and the inhabitants of Etzatlán.
“We never thought that something so small that began by covering trees and then making this beautiful woven sky would reach these extremes. We are present in Dubai and with a Guinness record, we did not imagine that these hands would turn wonderful things and will empower women in our town,” she said in the middle of a weaving session.
In 2013, Ron lost his father and her husband and, to cope with the mourning, she and his mother began to weave multicolored decorations for the patron saint’s festivities of the local church, which first adorned the trees and then the kiosk in the square.
Seeing that the demand for decorations was increasing, they decided to ask the municipal authorities for help to buy the material and managed to gather other women who had the habit of weaving. Together they created the first woven pavilion that was hung to illuminate and brighten the main street of that place, in 2015.
WEAVE THE LANDSCAPE
This fabric turned the center of the town into a landscape with a sky painted with dozens of colors and offered the women of the town a space to create while generating a sense of belonging and union.
“The tissue heals your mind, your body because you forget your sorrows, your worries, your stress, you turn it into wonderful things and apart from that it is also a social fabric that unites all classes social for the same goal and that makes a very cool (beautiful) union,” he said.
Before the covid-19 contingency, the weavers would gather to work in the main square and then in one of their houses. Now they do it from time to time in the municipality’s House of Culture, where there is no shortage of conversation and laughter while hands move quickly.
In the living room they keep not only a memory of the fabric that until this month of March is shown in Dubai, there is also a space to order each finished rug by color and another to join the pieces according to the design they had in mind and that is sample on one of the walls.
Ronaldo Guzmán is a young singer, painter and lawyer who joined the group in 2020 with the interest of being part of Guinness and was seduced by the art of transforming a thread into multiple forms, he explained to Efe.
Guzmán not only weaves in his free time but also became one of the assistants to count the balls of yarn that are missing, the rugs that are produced, as well as mounting them on the roofs so that they cover the streets.
“Something that caught my attention in this project is seeing the work and love with which the weavers do this, this is their passion. It is something that identifies us as a municipalitybeing working here led me to weave and learn and be in this project that we didn’t imagine would be so big,” she added.
Ron explained that in recent months they have increased the length of the original fabric, which went from almost 3,000 square meters to just over 8,000, which means some 24,000 rugs along eleven streets and far exceeds his own Guinness record.
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The intention is that the fabric has at least 12 thousand square meters to cover the entrance of the town with different designs, but just as colorful to continue attracting tourists.
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