Elias Mozombite Quispe

Elias Mozombite Quispe weaves sweaters and accessories of alpaca fiber and organic cotton using a manual machine. He was born in the city of Satipo, located in the department of Junin. He moved to the city of Huancayo to go to high school. During the last years of his secondary education he learned to weave and knit. In 1990, he came to Lima to visit family. He decided to stay in Lima to work at large folk art studios.

Elias is married and has four children. Three of them go to school, while his eldest daughter already works. All of his children learned to weave and knit sweaters, but they do not want to continue doing this work. His eldest son wants to study business administration, so he can help his father with the business development and administration of his studio.

Six years ago, Elias started collaborating with Raymisa. Since then, he received orders for clothes during the work season from April to August, much earlier than other businesses he collaborated with back then. As he received more and more orders from Raymisa he began to produce clothes exclusively for Raymisa. Elias based his choice for Raymisa on the early orders and the fact he lives nearby Raymisa’s office. This allows him to coordinate the entire process of his work. Together with his wife he runs his studio. They own four manual machines. He hires between six and twelve people to assist them, depending on the amount of orders. His family’s income is dependent on Raymisa’s orders and is used to send his children to school, to cook healthily and to pay medical bills if necessary.