Jackeline Mejía
Workshop: Bananabeach
Craft: Weaving
Trail: Macondo Route
Location: Zona Bananera, Macondo
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Calle 6 # 2 casa 122, Barrio 16 de Julio, Prado Sevilla
3206284360
jackemejia588@gmail.com
Jackeline was born in Chibolo, Magdalena, but settled in Zona Bananera almost a decade ago. Even so, this land—Prado Sevilla, famously linked to One Hundred Years of Solitude and the birthplace of the United Fruit Company—has been with her since childhood. She visited often, especially during her teenage years with her father: a man she remembers as the town’s shoemaker, photographer, and picture framer, now turned Christian pastor.
Her parents separated when she was eight, and from that moment on, her time was split between the two landscapes of her youth. Looking back, she sees how this shaped her resilient spirit. That early need to adapt—to remain flexible and steady no matter what came—has served her well.
Especially when married with four children, money became tight. Her husband worked the land, which for every farmer means that the household economy has to adjust to the harvest times. They know and accept that fact. But as farming grew more mechanized, his work began to disappear. They had to look elsewhere to sustain their family. That’s when they moved to Zona Bananera, drawn by the promise of the region’s vast banana plantations.
Soon after settling in, the fifth child in their lineage was born. But Jackeline didn’t want to simply wait and hope for better times. That’s when craft crossed her path. She joined a workshop and saw, for the first time, the artistic potential of banana sock. The only requirement was knowing how to weave. She wasn’t an expert, but she remembered the wool knitting classes she’d taken over twenty years ago when her first daughter was born and she made all her baby clothes. With that memory in hand, she turned to banana fiber and felt an instant connection. She fell in love with its texture and the beauty of the things it could become.
Since then, she hasn’t stopped learning the secrets of this craft: how to draw threads from the stalk, how to weave with unripe fiber and dry fiber, how to soften it with conditioner when others suggested silicone that burned her fingers. A long process that has helped her refine the technique over time.
Now, she wants the world to know this process—to fall in love with banana plants the way she did. She wants people to see the full journey: from harvesting it to creating the final craft. Like her, she hopes others will come to cherish this magical plant—one that is the symbol of a region, immortalized by a writer named Gabriel García Márquez.
Workshop and process
Craft
Artisans along the way
Artisans along the way
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