| Late One Night | | How one Peruvian janitor discovered his passion for weaving |  | | | It began in a textile factory, where Isidoro C'cahuantico worked the night shift as a janitor. In the 1970s, he’d fled his village near Cuzco when terrorists moved into the region. Without any means to support himself, he’d been forced to accept whatever jobs came his way.
So it was that he found himself sweeping the floors late at night in a textile factory, marveling at the tools of the trade around him. He describes the scene: "At night, when everyone had gone home and I was left alone to sweep and clean, I began to look at the looms and machines and to experiment with them, just out of curiosity.”
He would tinker with them, examining each extraordinary piece, the way they fit together, the elegant mechanics that made them work. “Some days later,” he said, “one of the weavers complained to the supervisor that his machine was never the way he'd left it the night before. The owner asked who kept adjusting the loom and was surprised beyond belief to learn that the culprit was me!”
In a genuine act of kindness, his supervisor did not fire Isidoro. Instead, she posed him a question. Why? Why was he using the loom? “I replied that I wanted to learn to weave.” She waited a moment, thinking about what he had said. Her response changed the course of his life. “She said that if I really wanted to learn, I should learn to assemble one of the spare looms in the warehouse.”
To this day, as the owner of his own weaving businesses, Isidoro is grateful that his curiosity led him “into the world of textiles, looms, knits and weaves”… and that he was lucky enough to have a supervisor who did not destroy his dreams, but enable them.
"That was the beginning of a vocation, a great gift that I have now also passed along to my children. My two older children work with me, weaving and knitting fine alpaca textiles, and my daughter does the best crochet work I have ever seen.”
To each and every customer who supports the work of Isidoro and his family, he has one clear message: "I would like to assure you that every garment we create carries with it our creativity and hard work. Your appreciation for our work motivates us to continue perfecting our skills and our art!" |
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