Indigenous Community in Mexico Is Fighting a French Fashion House's Imperialism teleSUR
go to original December 3, 2015

"You must sell it, but the manufacturing, profits and recognition should go to the Mixe people, not another person, not to other companies,” Carmelite Vazquez. (Tumblr/Unvelievers)

Leaders from Tlahuitoltepec’s indigenous Mixe community in Mexico vowed Wednesday that they will continue to challenge a French designer for appropriating and trademarking their ancestral embroidery.

The traditional Tlahuitoltepec Mixe huipil blouse is part of the group’s "intangible cultural heritage," said Fidel Perez Diaz, the second councilor of educational and cultural affairs in the community.

The community leader is responding to French company Antik Batik that claims to have a legal patent on the clothing, which would force the Mixe community to pay royalties on the very blouses they have been producing for the past 400 years.

...The indigenous community of Oaxaca aims to collect signatures to register the copyright in favor of the community. Mexican activists have joined in to support the community with a petition on the site Change.org. The online action has already garnered over 150,000 signatures.

Read the rest at teleSUR

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