Strolling down South Main street on a Saturday morning in Downtown Cruces, a tent draped and covered with bright and bold Prayer Flags waving in the wind will catch your eye as you pass by our clinic at 130 S. Main. These flags, created by a community-based project in Juarez–Inspired Imports–are our most recent addition to Crossroads Community Acupuncture’s Fair Trade products.
Where to buy a Prayer Flag
Flags are sold at Crossroads Community Acupuncture 130 S. Main for $15 and can be purchased at the Las Cruces Farmer’s Market 8:30-12 every Saturday (just outside our door!), alongside an assortment of Fair Trade products from Mexico.
Also, you can purchase these items at our clinic during business hours at 130 S. Main (entrance off of Water Street) on these days:
Tues-Thurs 11-7
Fri 11-2
Sat 9-1
They are also sold at Mountainview Market 7 days a week! The flags are great as gifts for kids and adults, or can be used to decorate your home, office, or garden. Like all our Fair Trade products, a portion of profits go to benefit the Crossroads Border Project in Mexico.
What are Prayer Flags
The creation of this new product by Juarez artesans–who call them Guerilla Prayer Flags— come from the tradition of Tibetan prayer flags, which are displayed in many cultures around the world to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. Guerilla Prayer Flags, made by community workers along the border in Anapra, Mexico, have a variety of different designs. Symbols on the various flags include the Virgin Mary, Namaste, the I Ching symbols, a movement for peace in Juarez, Mexico Amor por Juarez, Crossroads Community Acupuncture’s symbol and many more. Inspirational quotes are found on many of the flag designs, as well.
More about Inspired Imports
This particular project is run by the La Union-based small business “Inspired Imports,” run by Siba and Rosario Escobedo. They have two lines of Fair Trade items: Rags to Britches & Guerilla Prayer Flags. Both are projects of love and hope that are transforming the lives of 4 Juarez families, and creating some beautiful things along the way. Juarez, MX is one of the world’s bloodiest urban war-zones, right in our own backyard (just an hour away from Las Cruces). The most devastating toll is being taken on innocent families caught in the crossfire.
But Rags to Britches & Guerilla Prayer Flags are not providing a mere hand-out: we seek hard-working, resourceful, deserving women to fulfill a market niche for what the project’s co-founder Rosario Escobedo saw as a lack of “unique clothing that you can actually feel good about buying”—that means no sweatshops and little environmental impact with use of recycled fabrics.
Inspired Imports’ latest project, Guerilla Prayer Flags, is an effort to provide further economic and moral support to Juarez. Our spin on the colorful Tibetan prayer flag tradition are created from hand-dyed, hand-stamped recycled t-shirts, with messages to appeal to almost anyone who wants to add some color and spirit to their home, yoga studio, or yard. These bright garlands of waving color signify the release and manifestation of your intent into the universe as they dance and disintegrate in the wind.
Come check out Juarez’s latest blooming and see if this expression of global and personal transformation speaks to you. Specialized orders may be made to have your own design or quote or saying or expression of peace on your individualized prayer flag.
News coverage of Inspired Imports
Inspired Imports was featured alongside Crossroads’ project in Juarez last year in Las Cruces Sun News Peter Goodman’s column “Their View: Three groups that give our community more to be thankful for.”
Inspired Imports helps Crossroads
Crossroads thanks Siba and Rosario Escobedo for spearheading this project. They volunteer for Crossroads every week to get the word out about our Fair Trade table. Come meet Siba and Rosario the next time you’re down at the Farmer’s Market!
Contact:
Rosario Escobedo
915-490-5987
inspiredimports@yahoo.com
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