Our Compañera: Virginia

By Ashley Wade, Marketing and Communications Intern Virginia (pronounced veer-HEEN-ee-ya) is the leader of her cooperative located in Huilloc Bajo, which participates in Awamaki’s sustainable tourism program. She learned to weave when she was 10 years old, and she has been weaving almost every day since. “My mom and my grandmother taught me, and it took a lot of patience. It is so easy now,” she said with a laugh. When she was young, she learned the entire process of turning wool into beautiful textiles. It begins with spinning the alpaca wool from unruly tufts to tight yarn using a...