Support Handmade Heritage Arts made by asylum seekers stuck at the U.S.-MX border.
Creators Helping Creators
Creators Helping Creators
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Creators Helping Creators
Creators Helping Creators
Creators Helping CreatorsCreators Helping CreatorsCreators Helping CreatorsYou can help. Sign up as a friend of the non-profit Artisans Beyond Borders, become a supporter or collector & follow
Keep this bright spot on the border going
Donate to Artisans Beyond Borders and receive in the mail a hand-picked bordado (embroidery) with any donation of $45.00 or more.
Free shipping included.
About Us
bordando esperanza ~embroidering hope
"I have been waiting here on the border to be safe in the U.S. for three months now. My mother taught me to embroider as a child, then I taught my daughter and my son too. When I’m creating my designs and stitching, I feel better.” Artisan beyond borders embroidering on the street in Nogales, Mexico.
The Call: Summer, 2019
"It comes as no surprise that a recent message from a shelter in Nogales, Mexico, 60 miles south of Tucson, where families now wait for weeks or months for an asylum interview, was not the regular request for food, clothing, and blankets. It was instead an urgent plea from migrating women for crochet needles and yarn."
Each original, hand-stitched work of Art is a vote for beauty, faith, and self-determinism in the middle of perilous migration and family displacement.
Every piece of Heritage art that we offer for a donation means we can purchase more from the artisans, providing direct AID to families, many of whom have nothing.
Heritage Arts of Latin America
Artisans beyond Borders embroider mantas, also known as servilletas, and then border the cloth with crochet tejido de gancho. Hand-stitched mantas are often passed down generationally in the family.
Mantas are traditionally used for wrapping “swaddling” food for one’s family, the alternative to plastic. Most Artisans Beyond Border’s bordados are stitched on %100 cotton Manta cloth, the traditional cloth of Mexico with origins dating back to the Aztec empire. Manta cloth is 100% natural unbleached organic cotton providing thermal insulation and perfect breathability.
Many mantas become cherished table centerpieces. They can also be devotional.
“When I was coming to the United States, the first thing I bring with me was a little bordado, a tablecloth I lay down for my prayerful space. Wherever I move, I take that with me because it reminds me where I come from.”
Laura Santos, Sister of the Holy Cross
Artisans Beyond Borders, Asylum seekers waiting at the port of entry, offer us their handcraft, a piece of themselves for our homes. In friendship and respect, we support and welcome them. .
Our Creative Team
From 2004, when we borderland residents began to find exquisite embroideries left behind in the desert south of Tucson ~ "Heirlooms in the Sand," with smart feminine sensibilities in each stitch ~ we vowed to find a way to bring attention and respect to the makers. Now, in 2020, we have the opportunity to directly help these vulnerable families through the healing power of creativity, restoring grace and agency through the work of the hands, solidarity among the artisans, and respect for cultural and familial arts across borders.