Spanish Club Fundraiser Success

“Amarro cinco colores . . . ”

Her two young children by her side, Nazarena, an artist from the city of Masaya, Nicaragua, chooses five spools of colorful thread and begins weaving them into an intricate braid. She talks while she tucks and twists the thread, explaining that she has been making pulseras– bracelets–for four years now and that she can make twenty to twenty-five dollars a day.

She is grateful to have a job that enables her to take care of her children, and when she is finished with her pulseras, she delicately places

their ends to the flame of a candle to set the wax that keeps their tips from coming undone.

Nazarena is just one of over 200 artists whose pulseras were featured at the PVCC Spanish Club’s April fundraiser for The Pulsera Project, an organization that supports communities throughout Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Despite their natural beauty and rich cultural histories, Nicaragua and Guatemala are faced with high poverty rates, and The Pulsera Project helps artisans like Nazarena to support their families and provides them with educational opportunities, scholarships, and health assistance. The complex designs and bold colors of each pulsera represent the heritage of the artist who made it, and the fundraiser brought attention to not only The Pulsera Project’s mission but also the beautiful artistic traditions of Latin America.

The Pulsera Project and all the families it helps support rely on school sales to raise money, and between April 1st and 15th, the Spanish Club’s sale raised over $700 by selling tiful pulseras and bolsitas (purses) to PVCC faculty, staff, and students.

Muchas gracias to all who helped us in our efforts to make the world a more colorful place!