Multicolores Rug Hook Designer; Ramona Cristina Tumax Tzunun

Ramona lives with her husband and two children, ages 3 and 14, in Chiyax, a small village situated in the South-Western highlands of Guatemala. Ramona has been rug hooking since 2010. In 2012, she was chosen as one of only seven women to receive teacher training.  Since then, Ramona has been teaching women in her village, and beyond, to rug hook.

Her favorite part of the rug making process is designing. Ramona takes her inspirations from traditional Maya clothing, and the nature and colors of Guatemala. In 2016, Ramona's rugs were exhibited at the Avenir Museum, Fort Collins, Colorado, and at the Textile Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

With income from rug sales, Ramona helps her husband to pay the household expenses and she also pays for her son's school fees. As a child, Ramona made the daily two-hour trek into the mountains to collect wood. Her mother made pottery bowls, and the wood was burned in the oven. Ramona left school when she was 8 years old. She said, "I thank God for giving me this type of intelligence, although I don't know how to write well, and I had to give up school in the third grade... I have artistic abilities.  I want people to know that I am proud of my work.  I feel happy, supported, and animated to make more rugs."

Ramona Cristina Tumax Tzunun