Just recently, something extremely special happened to Francisca, our operations coordinator! For those who may not know, Francisca met Hiptipico founder Alyssa back in 2014 when she was just 12 years old. At this time, she was just trying to help her family make ends meet by selling souvenirs in the streets of Panajachel for tourists passing through.
Since then, Hiptipico began working with Francisca’s mother, Doña Teresa to make the gorgeous handmade greeting cards and dust bags you receive with every order. At that time, Francisca’s oldest sister, Lisa also began working as a full-time employee at Hiptipico as our Operations Assistant.
From the age of 16, Francisca began helping out part-time in the Hiptipico office and learning the ins and outs from her older sister Lisa. Both Lisa and Francisca come from an extremely humble and traditional family, with 8 siblings in total. They are a crucial asset to the Hiptipico team and partake in artisan relations helping to bridge the gap between our international community and our local artisan partners.
Francisca has always shown a spunky attitude, is fascinated to learn more about photography and even taught herself English! So it was no surprise to us when she recently told us she wanted to learn to ride a moto!
All of us, including Lisa were very excited to help Francisca accomplish this new goal of hers. We chatted about buying an office moto for her to help with errands and how helpful this would be for the two of them coming to and from Santa Catarina every day.
But sure enough, within a few days, Francisca showed up to the office with HER VERY OWN MOTO! Everyone at the office ran out to see her moto and hear the story! Knowing that Doña Teresa is still quite traditional in her household and any big decisions about money (even if you earn it yourself) is a family decision and has to be made together. Francisca explained that she sat down with her parents and outlined the benefits of her having the moto and how the money she has earned at Hiptipico should be used towards this investment so she can work more efficiently and also help the family with daily tasks. And surely enough, the family agreed and Francisca is the proud owner of her very own moto!
While as a reader you may not know how incredibly special this is, we want to emphasize that it is! Here in Guatemala, indigenous families still maintain a traditional culture that doesn’t always allow a single female to have such freedoms. Also, not all families have the financial means to purchase a moto. We love to see the direct impact working at Hiptipico has on our artisan partners and our local employees. Finding a balance of respecting culture while also growing professional and personally is our overarching goal. Preservation of culture is so important, but also providing an avenue for indigenous families to escape poverty, have more financial freedom and job security is all represented in this simple act of Francisca buying her own moto!
So, let’s celebrate together and keep growing our conscious community so we can share more stories just like this!
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