TSOTM Feb 2022: Maya Resistance

Our T-Shirt of the Month for February 2022, made of 100% organic cotton by a worker-owned co-operative, and supporting grassroots labour unions in South Asia. This month's design has been created by young Mexican artist Julio Mendoza, and celebrates Indigenous resistance to Spanish colonialism in February 1517. The back of the shirt represents a Maya warrior wearing a jaguar helmet. For the Maya, the jaguar represented power, ferocity and valour. The Maya word muuk’ means fuerza in Spanish respectively – strength or force in English. The front of the shirt features a corn in the shape of an arrow referring to famous Maya leader Nachán Can. It is said that when Spanish invaders sent a messenger to get tribute from Nachán Can, he sent back a message saying that the only tribute he would give to the Spanish would be turkeys in the shapes of spears and corn in the shape of arrows. The arrow also features the year of the battle against Hernandez de Cordova, who set out from Cuba to Mexico i