Rousso's 10-year research project started with the goal of combining her love of travel with her educational and professional background, which includes natural resources, hand-constructed weaving techniques and physical education. "Pulling all that together, I came up with the idea to do a research proposal on net bags," she said in a telephone interview while vacationing in Hawaii. Rousso had served in Guatemala in the mid-1980s as a Peace Corps volunteer, so she was familiar with the area, she said, and she had a contact at the textile museum in Guatemala City, which agreed to be her affiliate for a Fulbright grant. She got the grant, and in 2000 made her first research trip to Guatemala. After arriving, Rousso said, she could have gone in two different directions. She could have focused on woven bags of all different fibers, or followed the maguey. She ended up going the latter route, and learned a lot in a short time. "It was good in ways that I didn't know anything," she said. "I was open to anything."
RPCV Kathy Rousso documents traditional extraction and weaving methods in her new book, "Maguey Journey: Discovering Textiles in Guatemala"
Ketchikan weaver chronicles South American textile
By LEILA KHEIRY / Ketchikan Daily News
Published: December 24th, 2010 01:38 PM
Last Modified: December 24th, 2010 01:38 PM
KETCHIKAN, Alaska - Every year for the past decade, Ketchikan resident and weaver Kathy Rousso has traveled to Guatemala, searching for maguey.
The maguey plant is a fibrous succulent native to a large region, from the southern United States through South America. Indigenous people, particularly in Guatemala, historically have extracted fibers from the plant and spun those fibers into yarn to make woven items, such as bags.
The traditional extraction and weaving methods are fading, though, Rousso said in a recent interview, a trend she has documented in her new book, "Maguey Journey: Discovering Textiles in Guatemala."
Rousso's 10-year research project started with the goal of combining her love of travel with her educational and professional background, which includes natural resources, hand-constructed weaving techniques and physical education.
"Pulling all that together, I came up with the idea to do a research proposal on net bags," she said in a telephone interview while vacationing in Hawaii.
Rousso had served in Guatemala in the mid-1980s as a Peace Corps volunteer, so she was familiar with the area, she said, and she had a contact at the textile museum in Guatemala City, which agreed to be her affiliate for a Fulbright grant.
She got the grant, and in 2000 made her first research trip to Guatemala. After arriving, Rousso said, she could have gone in two different directions. She could have focused on woven bags of all different fibers, or followed the maguey. She ended up going the latter route, and learned a lot in a short time.
"It was good in ways that I didn't know anything," she said. "I was open to anything."
And when she got back from that trip, she did her background research, which Rousso admitted was not typical.
The 2000 trip was the only one funded by the grant, Rousso said. She returned multiple times, touring the countryside, visiting remote villages and marketplaces, learning techniques directly from the local residents and documenting what appears to be a fading art.
The result is her book, which is part travelogue, part history lesson and part scholarly work, all blended together.
"It's not a how-to book," Rousso said. "What I was trying to do was document things at this particular time in history."
That keeps changing, she said; every year when she goes back, the villages are different.
"Maguey Journey" reads well, even for someone who knows nothing about weaving or fiber art. Rousso's descriptions of the countryside and village life are interesting, and the modes of travel that she details can be a little alarming.
Rousso writes about taking rural buses, packed shoulder-to-shoulder with other people - or hopping into the back of a truck, often sharing the ride with livestock.
She noted several instances when a bus broke down, leading to long waits or long walks.
The people, though, welcomed her interest in their weaving tradition, and Rousso writes about many teachers who showed her their techniques, from extracting maguey fibers to weaving items for sale.
Rousso, who has a master's degree in textile art and costume design, said she also studied Alaska Native weaving techniques, and took classes at the Totem Heritage Center. She worked for the U.S. Forest Service here before going to graduate school.
After completing her graduate studies, Rousso said her focus has been on the maguey research and weaving her own contemporary baskets. She said she plans to return to Guatemala in January, to give copies of her book to all the people who helped with her research.
