(17 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Miguel Escobar, Guatemala – 2 April 2025
1. Close of artisan embroidering golden designs
2. Various of artisans embroidering traditional Holy Week garment
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Alejandro Juárez Toledo, artisan:
"I do the design, I propose it to the brotherhood or the donor, to the people in charge. And as soon as they give me the go-ahead, if something needs to be changed, we’ll work on it as soon as we agree. Then we start the embroidery process. Everyone is ready to make the pieces: piece by piece."
4. Close of artisan embroidering golden designs on cloak
5. Various of artisans embroidering garment
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Alejandro Juárez Toledo, artisan:
"During this Holy Week period, the Virgin’s attire is very big, in the case of the cloaks. There are cloaks that have three layers of fabric. So, it is necessary to make it piece by piece, then join them and then add the embroidery that goes over the seam. Handling the sizes is complex. For example, that mantle did not fit here."
7. Various of Toledo and artisans holding cloak; UPSOUND (Spanish) Alejandro Juárez Toledo, artisan:
"We chose several historical elements from the Church and the Virgin"
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Alejandro Juárez Toledo, artisan:
"When the client starts to see the embroidery on the garment, it starts to generate more emotion. That’s when you start to enjoy (the work) even more."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Antigua, Guatemala – 13 April 2025
9. Various of Virgin Mary statue adorned with handmade cloak during Holy Week celebrations
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Antigua, Guatemala – 23 March 2025
10. Various of faithfuls carrying a Virgin during Lent celebrations
STORYLINE:
At Alejandro Juárez Toledo’s workshop in San Miguel Escobar, 28 artisans — mostly women — lean over yards of rich velvet, hand-stitching garments that will debut this week in Holy Week processions across Guatemala and beyond.
The hefty velvet cloaks, finely embroidered with gold thread will cover the wooden Virgin Mary and Christ figures carried by the faithful down cobblestone streets lined by thousands.
A cloak for the Virgin Mary can measure 4 square yards (about 3 meters) and weigh more than 50 pounds (about 23 kilograms), requiring a metal frame to support the weight of the fabric without damaging the wooden figure.
Juárez Toledo has been crafting the pieces for 26 years but is still moved to tears when they robe the figures at the center of the Holy Week processions.
"When the client starts to see the embroidery on the garment, it starts to generate more emotion," he said. "That’s when you start to enjoy (the work) even more."
His workshop’s creations have clothed religious figures from Guatemala to El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama.
Guatemala’s Holy Week celebrations are especially exuberant. UNESCO, the United Nations cultural arm, designated them as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2022.
AP Video by Santiago Billy
Production by Fernanda Pesce
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