The Spinning Workshop was directed by Inés Cruz, Patricio Toroco and Maribel Carvallo, while the Basketry Workshop was directed by Fermín Gavia Cruz.

Rescue of traditions

Like the Volcanic Stone Crafts Workshop, the Spinning and Basketry Workshop, organized by the Atacameño Community of Toconao, was intended to be an activity that would allow our children and young people to meet the requirements of the scholarships, as well as being a participatory and community instance of rescue of the Atacameño textile traditions and heritage.

The Spinning Workshop, led by Inés Cruz, Patricio Toroco and Maribel Carvallo, covered from a short training on how to select the fiber, passing through the "mismido" and the "escarmenado", to the spinning in use and on the spinning wheel. The basketry course, directed by Fermín Gavia, focused on the selection of the material (Toconao cane), the cutting of the wafers and their subsequent weaving.

Inés Cruz pointed out that activities such as these are important and necessary, because they show "where we come from and what identifies us as toconares". She also emphasized that the workshops were cross-generational, because people from 5 to 65 years of age participated in them.