Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez
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Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez | |
|---|---|
 Callañaupa receiving a merit award in 2018 | |
| Born | 1960 (age 64–65) |
| Education | National University of Saint Anthony the Abbot in Cuzco |
| Known for | Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco |
Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez (born 1960) is an indigenous Quechua weaver[1][2] from Chinchero in the Cusco region of Peru. Along with other Quechua weavers from Chinchero as well as international supporters, she helped to establish the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC) in 1996 as a non-profit organization. Since 1996, Callañaupa has served as director of the CTTC. She has written two books on Peruvian weaving, and has co-authored a third on weaving elders of the Peruvian Andes.
On her maternal side, Callañaupa's grandfather was Spanish and her grandmother was Quechua.[3] After her grandfather died at an early age, her grandmother supported the family through making and selling textiles.[3] Callañaupa's grandmother taught Callañaupa's mother, Guadelupe Alvarez, how to weave, who in turn taught her daughters. Callañaupa and other members of her family are often described as "master Quechua weavers"[4]
Callañaupa grew up in the 1960s in Chinchero, Peru.[3] Her parents earned their living through agriculture.[3] When Callañaupa was four, her mother began to bring her daughter with her to their chakra (fields)[3] By the time she was six, Callañaupa was trusted to watch a flock of sheep alone.[3] While tending her flock, Callañaupa befriended an elderly shepherdess, Doña Sebestiana, who was a highly skilled spinner.[3] Callañaupa attributes her interest in textiles to Doña Sebastiana, whose work was so fine that young Callañaupa dreamt of spinning at night.[3]
From her mother Guadalupe, Callañaupa learned basic weaving designs.[3] Her interest piqued, she also began studying textiles from other communities that her father brought home from his travels. When Edward and Christine Franquemont, a husband and wife pair of ethnobotanists from the US, arrived in Chinchero in the 1970s to conduct investigations, Callañaupa befriended them and taught them the basics of weaving. With the encouragement and support of the Franquemonts, as well as other international supporters, Callañaupa eventually obtained a grant to study historical textiles in Berkeley, California where she experimented with different looms.[3]
Callañaupa holds a degree from the National University of Saint Anthony the Abbot in Cuzco, 1986.[5] She was one of the first women from her community to attend university, as during this time only men were expected to continue on to higher education.[3] Nilda has taught internationally at museums and universities in the US and Canada, including Cornell University and the Smithsonian.
In 1996 Nilda was one of the key founders of the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC), a non-profit based in the city of Cusco. Since the 1970s a group of women weavers from Chinchero met informally to recover old designs and sell textiles in the tourist market, and in this way earn an independent income from their male relatives. Nilda was a leader of this group which met in the courtyard of her family's home. This informal group of weavers was the basis of the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco which since 1996 has partnered with ten weaving communities in the region of Cusco to recover textile traditions and empower weavers. Since 1996 Callañaupa Alvarez has served as director of CTTC.[4]
