San Juan La Laguna is one of the towns that line Lake Atitlan.  Local laws prohibit outsiders from purchasing land within the municipality, allowing visitors to enjoy a  more authentic experience among the indigenous T'zutujil population.
Traditionally sustaining on fishing and agriculture,  today San Juan is home to Trama Textiles , a women's weaving co-op consisting of just over a dozen women who make textiles using the traditional Mayan art of backstrap loom weaving. As of 2020, they have partners all over the world who sell their good wholesale, casting a wide net for their products and profit.

 

The word for ‘artist’ is the same as the word for ‘healer’ in Tz’utujil, the Mayan language spoken.  The town’s young Mayan artists have began painting murals around San Juan, to promote Tz’utujil identity and philosophy. Artist Diego Ixtamer explains, “We’re losing a lot of our culture, and we’re living in a way that damages our culture and damages our Mother Earth. That’s why with our art, we try to cure people, to cure the community.”

What Flowers From My Gray Hair was painted by Pablo Toj with three other Jovenarte members. The woman pictured over a bed of flowers is a Mayan midwife who uses both traditional and modern treatments to care for pregnant women before and during birth. Toj says they painted her to represent the legacies of today’s elders, and to reflect on what legacy today’s youth might leave when they are the elders. Toj says, “Everything we do eventually must flower in a younger person. Everything I do leaves its mark in someone else.”
He also says the other woman and the red flower above her represent hope. “Many women here call themselves kotzij [flower]. The flower of life, the flower of humanity. The flower we all need.”