A Necklace for RBG: The Global Reach of a Tiny Island’s Feminist Beading Cooperative

What began as a hurricane recovery effort blossomed into a women-run collective empowering generations of Indigenous artisans on Isla Mujeres.

Thirty years ago, a community health center run by the Red Cross relocated to the La Gloria area of Isla Mujeres, a tiny island off the Yucatan Peninsula. It quickly became more than a clinic, a place where “islenas,” primarily  Indigenous women, could congregate to talk and share stories. Some brought craftwork to do while chatting—including embroidery, knitting and crocheting—while others brought bags of beads to make intricately woven bracelets, earrings and necklaces. 

Then, as frequently happens in this region, the island was hit by a massive hurricane. Somehow, Camp Sister Spirit, a feminist educational retreat based in Ovett, Miss., heard about the devastation and visited the island. Over time, they met the craftswomen and taught them carpentry. They also promised to raise money so that the group could open a cooperative business and market their handiwork. 

Several years later, in 1999, the Isla Mujeres Beading Cooperative opened on land donated by the Red Cross; Camp Sister Spirit was its primary benefactor. The site now serves as a combination workshop, classroom and store and has attracted visitors and shoppers from throughout the world. 

The cooperative’s volunteer social media coordinator, U.S.-born social worker Karen Rosenberg, became involved in the co-op in the early 2000s. She spoke to Ms. reporter Eleanor J. Bader in the late spring about the co-op’s growth, marketing and role in promoting the economic and social independence of its members.  

Karen F. Rosenberg: I’m a psychotherapist, and in the early 2000s, my colleague Ceci McDonnell and I ran women’s retreats on Isla Mujeres. Ceci met the craftswomen in the town center or zocalo—they had a table—and through them, met Margaret Washa, an American living on the island who was involved with the co-op and still beads with them. At the time, eight women were doing beadwork as part of the cooperative, and Ceci and I offered to do empowerment work with them. We were hoping to help them expand their global markets so they could become economically self-supporting and more autonomous, more independent. 

We based our work on The Millionth Circle, a concept popularized by Jean Shinoda Bolen. The core idea is that if women do inner transformational work to strengthen themselves, it will impact their families and communities, usher in a less patriarchal power structure and result in global changes.

In interacting with the Isla women, we learned a lot. Among other things, the women taught us about traditional Mayan remedies, teas and plants and shared their culture, ceremonies and celebrations. They also demonstrated their beadwork. Several of the American women who attended our retreats bought jewelry that they resold once they returned to the U.S., with the understanding that all proceeds would benefit co-op members.

Bader: Has the goal of achieving economic self-sufficiency been realized? 

Rosenberg: Being part of the co-op has definitely benefited the participants, enabling them to pay for school uniforms and books for their kids, for example. 

But not everyone has benefited to the same extent. Some of the women work in the co-op full-time; others are part-time and also have jobs in the municipality, in restaurants, as cleaners, or as medical assistants. The full-timers make a livable wage, about 30,000 pesos a month (approximately $1500 USD); the part-timers earn less. 

The minimum wage in Mexico is 280 pesos a day (about $14), so the women’s co-op earnings are significant. I also want to stress that each woman makes 80 percent of the sale price of the items she sells; 20 percent goes back to the co-op to buy beads, thread and other supplies.

The fact that the co-op does not have to pay rent or utilities on the shop helps enormously. Electricity is generated through a solar panel, and the co-op closes as soon as it gets dark.

Bader: Are worker-run cooperatives like this one popular in Mexico? 

Rosenberg: Yes. The biggest co-op on Isla Mujeres is for fishermen. There are also cooperatives for taxi drivers and restaurant workers. In addition, people are generally very pro-union.

Bader: Is the shop the only place where the jewelry is sold?   

Rosenberg: In addition to the shop, the co-op has participated in craft fairs and art festivals on the island. And each year, I bring jewelry and other items back to the U.S. I host a few sales in my Cleveland, Ohio, community, at the Chautauqua Institute, and at pop-ups in New York City. Most years, the sales net about $8,000, all of it going back to the women. We have a Facebook page [Isla Mujeres Women’s Beading Co-op], an Instagram account (Isla Beads), and a Google Business page. We’ve also been on TripAdvisor for 15 years, where the co-op is rated the number one thing to do on Isla!  This helps bring tourists into the shop and generates sales. The co-op does not have the ability to ship orders or run a mail-order business, though.

Bader: How does the co-op recruit members?

Rosenberg: There is not a formal process, but the women bring their daughters, granddaughters, nieces, cousins and friends. Everyone on Isla knows everyone else. Each jewelry maker is a sole proprietor, and they can teach their skills to others and help them become entrepreneurs. 

The co-op is continually evolving. The founding members are now in their 60’s or early 70’s, and a newer crop of artists has come in, including some teenagers. 

But despite their incredible artistry, the women are, for the most part, not networkers. Beading is largely solitary work, and a lot of the artisans are introverts who are not comfortable in social settings outside of the co-op. For the most part, they also have a hard time economically valuing their work.

Bader: Nonetheless, many of the women are teachers and run workshops on beading techniques. How does that work?

Rosenberg: The women are willing to run a class for one student or a group of students. No matter, at the end of a few hours, the students have made a bracelet or earrings. Last year, they taught a class in Cancun for a group of travel agents that Hyatt brought into Mexico. 

Potential students should understand that classes are conducted in Spanish; few of the women speak English.

Bader: What are the women most proud of?

Rosenberg: The members of the co-op, in addition to being incredible artists, are a social support group. When someone dies or has an illness or accident in their family, they are there for each other with food and solace.

The full-time workers spend every day beading around a table in the workshop and talking to each other about their lives, so when there is a problem—relationship difficulties or something else—they strategize. This has been extremely important to them, a form of what social workers call empowerment social support. 

Although I’ve never heard them use the word feminism, these working-class Indigenous women are proud of what they’ve done as women. They’re proud that Isla Mujeres has a woman mayor, and they’re proud of Mexico’s woman President, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo. This is true even if they did not vote for them!

Bader: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wore a necklace made by a co-op member in 2019. Did she visit the island?

Rosenberg: Every December I run a holiday sale that features the women’s work, and people repeatedly commented that many of the necklaces we were selling looked like the collars RBG wore with her judicial robe. After five different people said this, I figured, ‘why not,’ and sent a necklace to her, care of the Supreme Court, at the end of 2018. She wore it to the first court session in 2019 and hand-wrote a thank-you letter to me and the co-op members. That letter is now hanging in the shop. After she died, Time Magazine ran a photo of the necklace, but I regret that we do not have a picture of her wearing it.

Bader: What is the biggest challenge the co-op has faced? 

Rosenberg: COVID. During the lockdown, everything came to a screeching halt, and people were only allowed to go outside of their homes to buy groceries or go to a medical appointment. This meant that for many months, the women were unable to earn money and lost the social support they’d become accustomed to. 

Another challenge to me, as a social worker and therapist, is that I don’t think the women value their time and artistry as much as they should. These women create sophisticated patterns and elegant work, but they do not always economically value themselves as artists.

At the same time, they care deeply about things being done equitably, and they make sure that each person gets an equal amount of beads or other donated supplies. It’s a true cooperative.