Updates From the Road

The Alta Gracia workers have hit Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City as they continue on with their East Coast tour sponsored by United Students Against Sweatshops.  Maritza Vargas and Elba Nurys have been stopping at campus bookstores to check out the Alta Gracia displays, hitting student mixers, and speaking in classes to talk about Alta Gracia as a new model that could change the apparel industry. 

In D.C. we stopped by Georgetown University for the Alta Gracia Project: Georgetown Leadership Event, our CEO, Joe Bozich joined us to talk about why he founded Alta Gracia and explain the challenges and success we have experienced over the last year.  You can watch video of Joe, Maritza and Elba tell their stories at the event here.  On our way up north we also met up with students from the University of Maryland.

 

 

Our time in Pennsylvania was jam packed with a United Students for Fair Trade mixer, meeting up with the Student Labor Action Project and speaking events at University of Pennsylvania, Saint Joseph’s , Villanova , and Temple .

At Villanova, The Center for Peace and Justice Education and the Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade ambassadors welcomed us and turned out a great crowd with great questions.  We also spoke with the Latino Law Student Association, the Labor Law Student Association, and were hosted by the National Lawyers Guild at Temple. 

 

 

At Saint Joseph’s, Maritza and Elba were invited to speak in a couple of classes (one of the professors has taken her class  to visit the factory for the past two years).  Students listened , as Maritza and Elba shared their stories and explained how purchasing Alta Gracia can change  lives. We couldn’t resist stopping by to see the bookstore display and bumped into  students buying Alta Gracia gear.  It was cool to see how excited the students were to meet the people who sew the clothes and. They took  photos with Maritza and Elba.  

We just wrapped-up our time in NYC after talking at New York University, Columbia , and Fordham . Maritza and Elba keep saying, over and over,how thrilled they are to meet the people who are wearing the clothes they make. “We make these t-shirts and sweatshirts with love and think about the people who are wearing them,” Elba  said.  They are so excited to have the opportunity to meet the people who are supporting their right to earn a living wage.

Next stop is Connecticut to wrap-up the tour. Stay tuned for more photos and updates from the road.  

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