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Jules Vasquez reporting
Over 180 arts and craft makers from throughout the country filled up the eastern flank of the Memorial Park on Saturday for the Village Arts and Craft Expo. All sorts of exotic creations were on display, from traditional Cuxtal Maya bags to cacao, coffee and Carambola wine with mango jam:

Sally Evans - Steadfast Village - 'Rainforest Women'
"Well di jam, it's the first time Steadfast village has lots of mangoes, so we decided to use mangoes, using the ripe mangoes to make these jams"

Angelita Can - Aguacate Village
"This is grind pepper, this is what the Kekchi people mostly like. If they don't have meat they eat it with corn tortilla."

Julio Saqui - Che'il Cacao , Maya Center
"Everybody goes for chocolate."

Jules Vasquez
"And you make different varieties?"

Julio Saqui
"We are only making five flavors at the moment, doing regular milk, mint, doing coffee, ginger and the Sweet, bitter, dark

Jules Vasquez
"How many hours does it take to make one of those?"

Minita Cucul - Toledo District
"It takes three hours."

Jules Vasquez
"Three hours? One person?"

Minita Cucul
"Yes"

Minita Cucul
"We usually make it with needle and thread, and we use it to cover tortillas."

Desiree Arnold - Manager, Maya Bags
"Today we have 90 women in our group and we basically work with the skills of women already have. We develop a product that is more modern to promote in stores in the US. We're not in New York at Barney's any more but we're in other stores. As you know everything has to change and keep moving."

Jules Vasquez
"So how much were these selling for at the height of the popularity at Barneys in New York?"

Desiree Arnold
"450 US."

Mirza Perez - Azrim Kreashans
"These are recycled bottles from wines and liquors, and of course from food items and what I do is I uniquely hand paint them and decorate them."

So from Azrim's Bottles to Winston Francisco's Paintings, these craft makers don't do this to make money; they do it because they are compelled to create:

Jules Vasquez
"Do you make a living doing this?"

Filberto Choco - Toledo
"Yes this is my living, this is how I live."

Jules Vasquez
"Do you make a lot of money?'

Filberto Choco
"I can't say a lot, but at least I make something."

Jules Vasquezv "Why did you guys decide to make craft."

Sally Evans
"Well because we are Moms, we have kids, we are stay at home Moms so we find time to do different things to make money."

Dylan Ysaguirre
"Things we can make in between time and I think this is something that you know, we as girls, we love to do this, we grew up doing this and like my Mom says 'it's best to do something that you love so that you never feel you've worked a day in your life. feel good when I make stuff. I feel happy making stuff for me, for people. I love to see how they feel good when they like it. We make stuff for people and we keep them for ourselves, we can't help it, our creativity, we just have to share with people, and share with everybody.

Sally Evans
"This one looks good, I will keep it for myself."

Dangriga Town - Undertaker/Craft Maker
"This is a long lasting business. I plan to do this for life, until I die, so I am not worried about the item I have because one day, if I don't sell it, somebody will sell it, my Grand kids, my kids, somebody."

Mirza Perez - Azrim Kreashans
"I have worked different places and I have now found what I really really love. I enjoy every part of this art, everything; from the beginning, from washing the bottles to the last, I enjoy it."

And so did the shoppers on Saturday – they were treated to a visual buffet of almost limitless unique hand-made choices:

Darrell Bradley, Mayor, Belize City
"I was walking around, I spent almost a hundred dollars. The things, tahe products were really of that quality and very very good."

Nicholas Ruiz, Executive Director, BELTRAIDE
"This show is designed to showcase your products, to create a form for you to be able to sell your magnificent creations."