“A means to connect across cultures.”

Last month, we were lucky enough to host an immersive textile retreat in collaboration with our friend Alisha of Fiber Circle Studio. We were planning to compile a recap of the trip’s highlights, and then we realized, why not share one of the participant’s perspectives? So, just below, Jennifer Dubon answers some questions about her favorite moments and learnings she carried home with her. We hope you enjoy this insider’s take!

Tell us a little bit about yourself! Where are you from? What do you do (for work and/or for play)?

I’m currently a resident of Southern California but I grew up in Miami, Florida. I am a child of first generation immigrants and through the years I have realized, and have learned to appreciate, how that formed me as a person.

My parents are both naturalized citizens originally from Guatemala. They are the only members of their immediate families that came to the United States to establish their lives. They met other Guatemalan immigrants in Florida that would become their “compadres” and “comadres,” and that community was an integral part of my childhood.

Upon graduating from high school, I attended higher-ed institutions with the support of many need-based scholarships and federal grants. I had my fair share of students loans as well, mainly from my graduate career.

Today, I am a Senior Associate in the education studio at an architectural firm. I specialize in designing K-12 learning environments and can attribute my success to the empathy and gratitude I’ve developed as I reflect on my very own experiences.

While the results of my work can be incredibly rewarding, the journey there is challenging and quite often stressful. Since I try to separate work from my home life, I’ve dabbled in many creative outlets to give my mind the freedom to remain curious and creative. For the past eight years, my husband and I have also made it a point to travel someplace new one to two times a year.

Was this your first time traveling to Peru? What inspired you to visit via an immersive artisan retreat like this one?

In 2019, as a response to an office competition, I decided to explore a personal creative project. By this time I had already dabbled in knitting and natural dyes and my recent travels through the American Southwest spawned a yearning to reconnect to indigenous craft [through travel].

I decided I wanted to use the tradition of weaving as a means to connect across cultures. It would be an opportunity for me to learn about them (and myself), drawing parallels and contrasts, by cutting a cross-section through beliefs, traditions, processes and community all integral parts of weaving.

Due to anticipated time and travel constraints, I chose [to visit] three indigenous cultures in the Americas instead of others across the world: the Navajo of North America, the Q’iche Maya of Guatemala, and the Quechua of Peru. I found that [Alisha of Fiber Circle Studio] was organizing a group retreat to Peru on dates that worked for [my husband and me]. I immediately reached out to her and the rest, as they say, is history.

I knew that regardless of winning the office competition or not, this was a journey we were going to embark on. As a child I would ask to go to the artisanal markets every time we went to Guatemala, where the Q’iche Maya have a rich tradition of weaving, but I haven’t been to Guatemala in close to 20 years. This [three-part trip] was a first step in reconnecting to my heritage through craft.

What were some of the highlights of the trip for you?

It is really hard to pick only a few highlights because the entire trip was filled with beautiful moments of community, connection and reflection. One of the first memorable moments for me was during our car ride from Cusco into the Sacred Valley. We were on a 1.5 hour car ride with Victor and during that time we spoke of many things but what resonated with me was his pride in being Quechua. He told us that as a kid he was raised by his grandparents and therefore only spoke Quechua until he started attending school. He was bullied, like many Quechua kids are, because he couldn’t speak Spanish. He said that at the time he attended school, only Spanish was taught and there was a denial of indigenous traditions but that today there is a shift in the tide. Those that previously bullied him now wish they could speak Quechua and it is now being taught in schools along with Spanish in order to preserve and honor the country’s heritage. This was encouraging to hear as our own nation grapples with a similar history.

Another poignant moment was when we were welcomed by Juan and the community and we all introduced ourselves. We all shared sentiments of gratitude, our reasons for being there and reflections of being there today after years of living through a pandemic. It was a powerful release, in many ways, of the stresses our bodies and minds had been encapsulating. The release, and probably the high altitude, allowed us to fully harness our senses and to experience every breath, every sacred word and to appreciate every being.

The days spent spinning and weaving in the community felt familiar. Every day we were greeted with warmth and tenderness. Some days folks were grappling with altitude sickness and they were welcomed into their homes to rest and recover. Fresh herbs like hierba buena, muña, and manzanilla were picked every day so that we could have “infusiones.” On one day my husband rode a mountain bike up to the community and all of the kids somehow got word and flocked to him at the community “cancha” and they each got to ride around on the bike. The joy in each of their faces was delightful to witness.

On the way to our final day in the community we stopped by the market in Ollantaytambo. We filled many bags with school supplies, snacks, cooking ingredients and fruit to leave behind. After lunch that day I passed around chocolate bonbons and when I ran out I discarded the box they came in. A few moments later, one of the kids took the box and utilized it to store his small toys. This small act prompted a depth of reflection. There’s a lot being written about adopting indigenous methods of tending to the land in order to reduce the damage we’ve done to it this far but we can take smaller actions every day and still make a difference. Even though I consider myself to be pretty mindful about reducing waste and finding ways to reuse, there’s still a lot more I can do.

On the last day, even after days of weaving in the community I was still in disbelief that I was there. Many of us had déjà vu leading up to that point and I’d like to think it was confirmation that we were all where we were meant to be. There were many things that almost went wrong like impending strikes, airplane mechanical issues and if our dates had shifted by just one day, we would have likely missed the entire thing. But we didn’t. Against many odds it all happened to work out, and in my heart I don’t feel that it was just luck.

Sitting on the lawn, I took a moment to just be still. I watched the other folks as they weaved and giggled, I listened to the birds singing in the distance, I felt the crisp clean air and I smiled. I felt a peace come through me and the only way I can describe it is that I felt like my spirit was home.

What struck you most about Peru and its people and culture?

I think I speak for both my husband and I when I say we were inspired by the humility and kindness in everyone that we came across. The pandemic affected many of the folks we spoke to in ways we only read about but everyone’s spirit was still filled with gratitude and optimism for the future. The rich history of the Inca and the reverence to Pachamama permeates the everyday. Conversations around colonialism were frequent and reflected our own personal histories.

It was also eye opening to hear folks talking about working seven days a week and not getting days off, let alone being able to take a vacation with their family. Here in the United States many of us are given the option to work remotely and there are some businesses considering reducing the work-week to four days. The contrast made us keenly aware of our privileges.

What's different for you now that you're back home?

The first few days that we were back I was having a difficult time getting back into my day-to-day. We had just experienced something so enriching and meaningful that it was hard to reconcile getting back to the grind. How could we make our daily lives more purposeful is something I kept asking myself. Just earlier in the year I had left my job of 9+ years in order to realign with my values and goals — something countless others had done as well after reflecting on experiences through the pandemic. This experience sent another shockwave through my system that I am still parsing through.

However, now that we’ve been back for a couple of weeks and have settled into a routine I find that we are more intentional with our time. We are making the most of the days we can share together and looking for ways to stay connected both to our local community and the community we left behind.