Los Cuchareros Intro

The name of the initiative is the Spoonmakers of San Lucas Toliman.  They are located in a small community on the shores of Lake Atitlan.  The group is small (about 15 members). From the sales of the spoons, part of the profits go to the artisan, while a percentage is contributed to a community program that aims to provide basic services to people of the "third age" (senior citizens). 

Our contact to the this group was facilitated by Will Smith, an American citizen who has been residing in Guatemala for the past 6 years with his partner (a health promoter). He is currently working with Concern America, an NGO that provides technical support to local and grassroots initiatives in Central America and Mexico.  Linda Burnside of Alternative Grounds and Bob Bernstein of Bongo Java became acquainted with Will during the 2005 Cooperative Coffees General Assembly Meeting of Members, held in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.  Will had some samples of spoons, which Linda and Michael (from Bean North in Whitehorse, Yukon) bought and brought back to Canada. We did a test market-run and discovered that people loved the spoons!

The most recent update is that Will Smith will be in San Lucas until May 1st and then back in the US where he will stay until August.  He will return to Guatemala in September and stay on with the project until December of this year.

While in the US, Will and his wife will spend their first month in Fort Collins with a week trip to Utah.  During this visit, he hopes to give a few presentation and widen the network of individuals who can support this initiative (through purchases or fundraising).  Will also hopes to find a replacement trainer, who will be able to work in Guatemala and provide one-on-one technical assistance to both collectives of Spoonmakers (starting January of 2007). In the meantime, Rick Van Savage has joined their team. Rick used to work in Chiapas and is now busy setting up a website (www.cuchareros.com) that will help market the spoons to a wider market. 

The Spoonmakers are currently split into two groups, one located in Petén (North) and the other in San Lucas Toliman (central Guatemala). Both work independently from one another.  The members of  the Peten group are older while the folks in San Lucas are quite young (17-25). Both are working as independent initiatives but don't have a cooperative status.. they are working on it and hope that they can have this accomplished soon. 

The groups have made headway in getting themselves organized and have begun to take charge of many duties and tasks that Will used to perform (it has been identified that they need to become self sufficient and fully functional in order to make this a long term enterprise). However, there are still a few details that need to be ironed out and more training is needed in areas such as outreach, marketing and communication.  According to Will, the next 4 months (while he is in the US), will be the real test and hopefully once he is back they can examine what worked and what failed in order to better prepare the groups for the next stages of the projects development. 

For now, "The Spoonmakers" can be reached via Will and his partner:

Sue Hammerton and Will Smith
Colonia Santo Tomas
San Lucas Toliman, Solola  07013
Guatemala  Central America
7722 0363
Sue_n_Will@yahoo.com 

We have also email addresses for some of the spoonmakers and Rick, the webmaster:
racile@cuchareros.com
julio@cuchareros.com
martin@cuchareros.com
rick@cuchareros.com