History and Prospectus

The Rebozo Way Project is dedicated to educating the general public about traditional methods of birthing, family and community relationships, and in-arms and attachment parenting. These related ways of being have been practiced in many parts of the world for millennia and are in danger of passing into history in our own present time. The Rebozo Way Project has drawn from the experiences and attitudes of indigenous and other ethnic groups in Mexico and Guatemala, and acknowledges the influence of similar and related practices of peoples in Asia, Indonesia, Africa, Europe, and South America. Our goal is to both honor and study the historical traditions of these peoples, and to provide knowledge of alternate world viewpoints and lifestyle practices. We believe that those of us living in modern cultures may draw on these practices to augment, enrich, and develop ways of being that best serve our own selves as well as our family and community systems.

The Rebozo Way Project was named after the Mexican rebozo, the all-purpose shawl traditionally worn by women and girls in that culture, and used to carry children from infancy through toddlerhood. One aspect of the Rebozo Way Project is to educate about this method of "babywearing" both in practice and in theory.

We have been working informally, out of Mexico, since 1988; in May, 1999, we incorporated as a California non profit, and we moved our physical headquarters to California that summer, where we had kept a permanent address all of these years. In October 2004 we received our offical status as a 501(c)3 public charity organized for educational purposes.

The Rebozo Way Project has devised a blend of artistic and educational methods to fulfil its purposes. We have created a number of educational pamphlets, brochures, and information sheets that we make available to the public through mail order and Internet sales, conference displays, public lectures, other Rebozo Way educational events, and word of mouth.

We have created the Rebozo Way Video, a 25-minute documentary that discusses the philosophy of in-arms parenting and demonstrates 8 ways to wear a baby or small child in rebozo. This video is available in both English and Spanish, and in VHS and PAL formats.

We also rent The Rebozo Way Photography Show, "Indigenous Babywearing in Latin America", which consists of twenty-five 8" x l2" photos, framed in wood and plexiglass. The photos include images of women with babies worn in rebozos and sutes (thick, square cloths from Guatemala also used to carry babies). We advertise the show rental through the mail, conference displays, and Internet. We also offer limited edition 6" x 8" copies of selected photos from the show for sale.

The Rebozo Way Project website describes the benefits of in-arms parenting and use of the rebozo, provides a way to purchase rebozos and order our educational materials, and rent the Rebozo Way Photography Show. Our web address is www.rebozoway.org.

We also offer related educational materials that we have not ourselves developed when they fit into our purpose and are well-written and informative. At the present time we offer a small selection of books which describe traditional family, community and/or birthing relationships, and introduce the concept of in-arms parenting. We also distribute a video called "Sobada and Manteada," about traditional massages by Mexican midwives, and one on birthing techniques using rebozos called "Comfort Measures for Childbirth: The Rebozo Way"

We also offer limited edition photos, color slides of rebozo mothers and babies, and the previously-mentioned written materials.

The Rebozo Way Project networks with similar organizations and participates in a variety of activities to further in-arms and attachment parenting and midwifery practices. Our special focus is cross-cultural and international exchange, as our founder, Barbara Wishingrad lived and raised her children in Mexico. See the article in this site, The Rebozo Way of Life, for a personal account of Ms. Wishingrad's experiences and insights into her own adaptation of traditional child-rearing to modern demands of survival as a North American foreigner in Mexico.

We are planning at this point to tour many of the rebozo and sute wearing areas of Mexico and Guatemala, to take more photos of mothers with babies carried in this way, for a large-format presentation book of rebozo mothering. We have already taken some of the photos for this project, and will be soliciting funds from various sources to complete the journey from picture-taking to publication. This is one of the projects that will get top priority at the Rebozo Way Project in the coming months and years. We took our last photo and video trip to Mexico in December 2004.

We have also begun work on a new video on the "History and Art of Rebozo Making," which involves 9 separate processes to create some of the lovely hand woven Ikat-dyed rebozos. We are working on creating a highly visible educational documentary that we can offer to PBS or another national television network. For this project we will need video equipment and assistance, and will be soliciting funds from grants and donations. We have already made contact with five rebozo producing centers in four different states in Mexico, received permission to film all of the processes in some of these locations. In preparation for this project, our producer Barbara Wishingrad has studied both backstrap and foot loom weaving, and the weavers whom she has contacted are equally excited about creating such a video. We have also been working on shorter, related video works, and our five-minute short "The Rebozo Way of Life" will be ready to distribute in spring of 2005.

Another new project is the acquisition of rebozo art and images that show the life of a woman carrying baby in rebozos and other traditional carriers -- photographs and images fashioned in clay, wood, paint, ceramic, cloth, and any and all of the varieties of artistic expression. We would like to both offer for sale these arts and crafts, and to create an exhibition of rebozo art that can be shown in various locations as a fundraiser for the project. We will offer the artwork in the same ways we now offer rebozos and our educational materials -- mainly through mail order, Internet, and conferences. We have begun to make contacts with various craftspeople who create these images and our preference is to buy from non-profit groups or cooperatives that directly benefit indigenous communities.

A new program which will be both educational and fundraising in nature will be our educational tours, the first of which will take place in the state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, one of the rebozo-producing centers; we also plan to arrange tours in the states of Oaxaca, possibly parts of Chiapas, and Guatemala. The initial program will consist of a one-week tour. Participants will fly into the airport at León, Guanajuato, and we will drive by van to the nearby state of San Luis Potosí, where we will stay at the Gogorran Hot Springs Resort. Just an hour away from Gogorran is Santa María del Río, a town famous for its silk rebozos made on backstrap looms. We will tour this town, including the School of Rebozo Making. Other activities will be planned, including weaving lessons, visits with cooperatives and family/community organizations, and lectures by traditional healers as well as midwives.

In addition to educational tours that take place in Latin American countries, we would like to offer conferences or workshops with curanderas (traditional headers), native midwives, traditional craftpeople, and the like, in various locations in the U.S. We would start with such events in the southern California area, inviting speakers/teachers who have rich experiences to share with us. In this way we hope to bring the teaching to the people of the United States who are unable to come to the teaching in other countries.

As the Project moves forward and accomplishes these goals in the years to come, we naturally expect to expand into projects that encompass the purposes of the Rebozo Way Project in other parts of the world. However, at this time, we will concern ourselves with fulfilling the above-mentioned goals, with your support. Thank you!

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