Women photographers analyzing stories

Voices and images: Mayan Ixil women of Chajul

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Four: Association of Maya Ixil Women (ADMI) – New Dawn

8. Women photographers analyzing stories

We Maya Ixil women have raised ourselves up with the assistance of PhotoVoice. The project’s training workshops were a great help. We gradually lost our fear. We have discovered how to value ourselves more and increase our self-esteem in terms of our daily lives and we have participated in this work with great freedom. We have mastered the technique of taking photos and learned how to analyze them to recover our histories. We also learned the various steps involved in elaborating a written book. We were exposed to a variety of ideas; we recognized the part women play and appreciated women’s roles. PhotoVoice led to growth in our own lives as women because for the first time we were photographers.

The aim of collecting these histories was to go back over the period of destruction caused by the war. We are highlighting this history to identify the problems it gave rise to and to ensure that it never happens again.

We women are working to develop a high quality presentation of our work. We want this history to be well-presented so that people in other countries can learn about the traditional cultural practices of the people of Chajul and about the work being accomplished in our town by the women, girls, and boys. This book is the story of Ixil lives. Our hope for the future is that the women’s group continues to grow and continues to improve its work.