About Us

Our Story begins in the 1970's when my mom left the only home she knew and the country she loved, Guatemala. She grew up in a humble home with a large family. Her parents struggled and gave them what they could but there was little opportunity for work. She knew she wanted more and would have to come to America to make that happen. One by one each of the siblings came to America, learned the language, got married and had kids.

Mama's childhood home

When I was 15 (a long time ago) I went with my mom and spent a glorious month living in the house where she was raised and falling in love with my roots. I bought my first artisan product, a backpack, and thought very little about how it was made or the effort that went into crafting the beauty.

Fast forward to early last year, I was cleaning out my closets and came across the backpack. Looking over it carefully, I began to realize how special this piece was. The fabric/ tela tipca was carefully woven on a foot loom. While this type of weaving can be produced in larger quantities, it can never be exactly replicated again. Moved by the artisanship, I spent hours learning about Jaspe (the pattern on the tela tipca) and began falling in love with the traditional Güipel also known as huipil. Each Güipel can take the artisan up to 6 months to craft. Each piece carefully designed, each thread dyed with love. I wanted to share these beautiful pieces with the world, I just wasn’t sure how.

 Learning about the art of jaspe

In September of 2018, my mom and I had several discussions about Guatemala and the economic environment there. With a strong desire to create opportunity for others and share our love of Guatemala artisans we cashed in our savings and set off on our adventure to start Lali Espi.

 Artisan weaving on a floor loom

That Brings me to our name. Lali. The matriarch of our family was my grandmother. Easily the strongest, most compassionate woman I’ll ever know. She had faith that could not be moved and a heart filled with love. Her name was Eulalia.

Espi, Short for Esperanza. Esperanza happens to be my mom’s youngest sister's name and means Hope.

We combined my grandmother's strength, love, and faith with a little dash of hope to create Lali Espi. In the spirit of our ancestors, and with your help, we hope to create opportunity and abundance for others.

With gratitude,

Michele & Maria