A group of Latin American indigenous migrants ordered this friday NY that they grant them necessary permissions to sell their handmade products and that they offer them more spaces where they can offer their craftsmanship.
Various vendors from native towns of Guatemala, Mexico y Ecuador they made this request during a fairorganized by the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs within the framework of the Migrant Week in New Yorkwhere they offered their clothing, footwear, gastronomic and handicraft products made by indigenous people in their countries of origin.
“This is a chain. They help us (from their countries, sending products) and we help them” by selling their products in NYsaid Fermina Morales32 years old, from Quetzaltenangoin Guatemalawhich sold handicrafts made by women of Mayan descent, as well as gastronomy from their country.
“We are bringing the taste of Our cultureWe try not to forget it,” he said. Moraleswhich reiterated that thousands of vendors in the city claim work permits without facing fines One thousand dollars or the confiscation of their products.
In NY there are more than 10,000 people on the waiting list for permits to sell food and almost 12,000 individuals for the sale of other types of commodity they sell despite the city froze permits in 1979.
Morales also asked the local authorities for help for natives like her, who speak the language Mam (one of the Mayan languages), does not speak any of the languages recognized by the city.
The Mexican Honorio Vazquezfrom the city of tlapain the state of GuerreroHe told EFE that he hopes this is not the first time he has been invited since it is the only way he can sell the clothes his family makes because he does not have permits.
The event was held in the plaza Immigrant Heritage (The Immigrant’s Heritage) in front of the National Museum of the American Indian.
The commissioner of the Office of Immigrant Affairs, Manuel Castro, who is Mexican and arrived in this city undocumented, told EFE that the event is the first of a pilot program that seeks to highlight the immigrant communities that live in the city and their time to educate about indigenous cultures, although he recognized that “it is a long process” that requires collaboration with other agencies.
“For me it is important to honor the history of the immigrants who arrived here and to remind everyone that this is still a city of immigrants, many newcomers, and not forget that many of us have indigenous origins,” Castro said.
With information from EFE
