Innovation

Taselotzin in Nahuatl means "small plant or shoot", and so was born the ecotourism hotel, located in the Municipality of Cuetzalan Puebla. It started operations in 1995, as a result of the collective effort of the organization Masehual Siunamej Mosenyolchiacuani, which means "Indigenous women who support one another", created and managed by about one hundred Nahua women of the region.

The initiative contributed to the integration of indigenous women who do not have basic education - the integral development of its collaborators (literacy, human rights, health and prevention) and the use of natural resources in a sustainable way through responsible agriculture

Inspiration

Rufina is the general administrator and she says: "The project was born in a board meeting, out of the need to be able to generate jobs for our families and thus avoid being forced to leave Cuetzalan for work, all this while conserving our indigenous culture".

These women had been directly affected by discrimination against a member of their family at some point because of their indigenous roots, but that only encouraged them to preserve more deeply those roots in the activities they performed, such as maintaining and teaching their Nahuatl dialect, clothing typical of the region, keeping alive the tradition of loom embroidery, to strengthen their traditions and transmit them to the new generations.

Initially this association started selling handicrafts at fair prices but in 1987 they realized that it was not enough to obtain income, so it was necessary to do something else and from there arose the idea of ​​a hotel, which was financed by loans.

The women were afraid when they started this project, Rufina Says "Oh my God, it is a lot of money to pay, and if this project isn't successfull, how we would pay that?", but now the idea is another one Rufina says "It has been nice to be inside the organization, it has been my school. I only have primary school but nevertheless I am the administrator, we are afraid of money management, but I always say, if you don't take the money it is not going anywhere, it will just sit there, the important thing is to trust that we can do things with it."

Overall impact

In Cuetzalan, women's empowerment was not an action well looked at by the community. That was one of the difficulties they faced as women since they started as an organization, but in 1996 these difficulties became more acute since they began the construction of the hotel Taselotzin. This through resources contributed between them and the obtaining of loans which were paid off with the resources that were generated by the own hotel.

This business model impacts 100 families and allows indigenous women to be empowered, to obtain fair profits for the sale of their handicrafts, and also for the lodging and feeding of tourists.

It has allowed women to become more valued and gradually assume an equal role as men in society, creating leadership roles for women that allow them to improve their quality of life.

Business benefit

The sale of its handicrafts, as well as the service of lodging, restaurant, the sale of indigenous art and medicine and rest with the services of temazcal (a pre-Hispanic sweat lodge), massages, tours to places of interest in the area and rituals of cleaning - all of which take care of the natural environment where the biodiversity is conserved.

Social and environmental benefit

This project began 31 years ago when the role of women was somewhat limited and more so in a rural area. The leadership of this group of women has had great impact in their community by creating this business model. But the business is not the only benefit because they also participate in organizations for the development of indigenous people. They also participate in composting through the separation of garbage, respect for ecological biodiversity, as they learned from their ancestors, as mentioned in the interview: "We do not call milpa a maize plant, we call milpa corn, beans, quelites, chiles, pumpkins, jícaras, everything that can be grown around a corn plant and in this way the ecosystem is not broken."

A great achievement has been to change customs and develop the women of the community through activities such as teaching them to read and write and to achieve in the family environment that the husbands of the women of this association had confidence that their daughters should go to school to have more knowledge and thus prepare for better for life. And as Mrs. Rufina says "Women are good administrators and thanks to that we have been able to build more things."

Interview

Rufina Edith Villa, Manager