“Well, I woke up feeling very well, thank God, extremely well: wanting to improve and grateful to God for how well I am doing.” This is how Edilsa greets us, with the cheerful smile that defines her. She is grateful for having been able to transform her childhood grief and shortcomings into pure creative energy. Her mother’s absence filled her past with grief, which she has transformed into wisdom, used to celebrate important moments, and built into a sense of resilience that provides her with tools for life.

She is a tenacious weaver. Whenever she looks back upon the past, she sees that every cloud has a silver lining. The nuns at the Hogar Santa Bernardita in Barranquilla taught her to crochet and cross-stitch. She later learned to weave Iraca fibers by watching her cousin, Rosa de la Hoz, who gave her back the sense of family that she had once felt in Usiacurí. She fell in love with the warmth of this place because she saw how everybody weaved in their houses, providing a livelihood for their families, and creating a space in which they could share with one another.

When one listens to her and the rhythm of her voice, it is easy to understand why she says that weaving is a feeling. One can truly grasp why she says that whoever buys one of her crafts is taking a little piece of her with them, which she is happy to share. She remembers how, in the beginning, try as she might, she could not make herself known. This was so because, even though her products were sold in-town, she did not belong to the municipal crafts cooperative.

However, she could no longer remain hidden during one of Artesanías de Colombia’s designers’s on-site visits. The designer asked to see the craftswoman who had made the knuckle flowers in knot-weaved trays with perfectly done stitches both on the right and on the left flanks. Hardly anyone could achieve this without revealing needle passages. At that moment, in the year 2000, her career, which she continuously works to perfect, finally set off.

She quickly became one of the craftswomen who proudly represent Usiacurí in fairs all over the country, as well as abroad, which she has already done in Uruguay and Venezuela. In her own words, “I think big; I’m not used to thinking small.” Her life has presented her with the opportunity to lead projects that transcend craftsmanship, such as paving the streets of the neighborhoods where she has lived. Likewise, she has advocated for women’s economic self-sufficiency in the municipality, always considering that the preservation of this weaving tradition is the best way to protect the welfare of both the families and the community at large. Even her young granddaughter is aware of how important the latter endeavor is.