Hoga means Happy in Otomí Dialect

You can listen to our interview [here] min.42

My student's thesis project is almost over. On a personal level I want to say I've learned a lot. My strong commitment towards the women in this community has led me to believe the first step towards bringing the rural to the urban, is making them believe they can do it. Empowerment seems like such a buzzword, I'd rather say personal development by which their self-esteem can blossom.

I hope our students win. These are their projects. Each of the six teams, created a business plan for their line of products, and I'm happy to say, they innovated here as well. Not bad for "designers" or doodle-makers as some people think of us in Mexico (still).

A certain percentage of the votes is decided by the people that listen to the show or those that have followed the projects through campaigns on social media channels. The rest of the percentage will be awarded by 8 judges that by now, have in their hands, the student's prototypes of the three participating colleges.

I have to give a recognition to UNAM, they worked with Tenango de Doria's community, a very well established and traditional textile artisan community. The students designed and developed chairs and nice vests with the artisans.

A part of me, wishes they would have taken their work a bit further, yet I believe these options can be feasible and easily replicable, two of the main objectives of this contest.

Now, for Monterrey's Tecnológico, the sun didn't shine so bright, they arrived at a fairly good option, but very modest and I don't believe they challenged themselves very much. Again, is feasible and replicable but not very innovative, I believe.

These watches would cost around 700 pesos, not bad for the artisans I think. They would need to embroider a small piece of fabric but would get a high profit from the finished product.

Our college, as I said before made 6 projects, each has a specific user and a business plan. Mamori  (love in otomí dialect) is a personalized line of bridal and special occasion accessories. 

Ko Madi, which means with love in otomí dialect, is an innovative way of online products that can be sent to someone on specific events in their lives. The group's idea is that they used the natural resources of the region and made some marmalades and embroidered recipes, both can create an excuse to prepare something special by the final user.

Luzänä means moonlight (yes, in otomí dialect) and they created beautiful embroidered lamps for your average hipster.

Madi is a kids / baby line of embroidered products for decoration that aim to depict the flora and fauna of the artisans' context.

Mohi (plate in otomí dialect), took the texture of the embroidered prototypes and is creating a ceramics line of homeware products.

And finally H'Nado which is a combination of two words in otomí dialect that mean community and union. What this group made are small, woven or embroidered fabrics (in various techniques of the region) and placed them on millennial products.

I have no favorites amongst our student's projects. I love all of them for different reasons and I know if they had been given more time, they would have gotten closer to more refined prototypes. I'm boasting I know. I wish I could be modest and say: "Meh, good work kids", but I can't. I'm hoga.

Now the most important question of all is, if we win and get the money... Which of all the projects is the most feasible for El Saucito's artisan community to work with?