Fair trading

Summer solstice once again finds Nancy Spada and Roger Gee far from their home on Hauser Lake. Accompanied by their little Mexican mutt, Chiquita, they’re headed south of the border on yet another shopping spree.

Spada, a former psychotherapist, and Gee, a former journalist, left their careers to start Singing Shaman Traders, an import company specializing in Mexican handcrafts and art. The couple makes the 5,000-mile roundtrip to Mexico three or four times each year to buy handmade pottery, baskets and jewelry directly from the craftspeople who make them. Members of the Fair Trade Federation, they return to the United States to sell the wares at galleries, museum and independent shops, and fair trade stores and festivals.

As part of her “Fair Trade tirade,” Spada explains, “many people are still confused about the difference between Fair Trade and Free Trade. Fair Trade is an alternative way to doing business, one that builds equitable, long-term partnerships between consumers in North America and producers in developing regions. Fair Trade businesses commit to paying a fair wage by local standards, offering employment opportunities and providing equal opportunities for all people, especially the most disadvantaged.

“Free Trade, on the other hand, and pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement, have encouraged multinational corporations to shop the world for the lowest wage and benefit deals, resulting in the modern-day sweatshop,” Spada said. “Wages for unskilled workers have dropped 20 to 30 percent in developing countries that have liberalized trade laws.”

Spada and Gee focus their art gathering on the unique black pottery of the Mata Ortiz, silver jewelry from the Taxco region, and the baskets of the Tarahumara, Mexico’s second-largest Indian tribe that lives in the Copper Canyon of northwest Mexico. Their van is instantly recognized by the village natives and upon arrival, is immediately surrounded by villagers offering their wares.

“Within five minutes, our van was ambushed, completely surrounded by other vehicles,” Gee said. “The villagers greeted us with laundry baskets full of pots wrapped in diapers.”

Gee takes pictures of the individual artisans to give away with each pot or basket sold, underscoring the personal connection in the sale.

Spada and Gee take plastic tubs full of school supplies, personal-care items and clothes to donate to the village children along their route.

“It’s the different experiences with the people that’s the pay-off for us,” Spada said. “We buy each piece directly from the producers and for many of these people, we are their only means of marketing their goods in the U.S.”

Along the way, Spada and Gee occasionally succumb to what they call “mercy buys.” They have had to educate the producers on what will sell in the United States.

“We just can’t sell their pure ethnic rebozos (shawls),” Spada said. “Natural cotton, or white or black, on the other hand, will sell.”