Children of Earth

My dad brought this shirt back for me.
He got it from meeting. And not like a meeting at work but at Quaker "meeting", which is what they call mass. They are a religious group that also supports small communities around the world with projects like this. The local people create handmade products like this and other crafts, then send them out to charities, who then turn around and sell them in other nations. This kind of free trade allows for the people to get top dollar in a prime market, enabling them to grow and thrive in an active world marketplace. We get wonderful handcrafted items and help nourish a developing community. The shirt originated from Guatemala and you'll want to look for the phrases "free trade" and "handmade" to get items like this which help the less fortunate.
My dad got this particular one because it matched my black graphic tee thing that I had going at the time. It took me a really long time to appreciate the look of it though. I mean you automatically get the idea that this is a design of Central American origin -and childish- upon first sight. This was not my kind of style and I had to look beyond that to the deeper meaning of world peace and harmony before I could wear it comfortably. I guess I'm shallow that way but the feeling really had to set in before I could "get into" the story of this garment. The actual fabric is a bit close cut, even though it claims it's a large. I am concerned about the embroidery breaking loose after a few wears and washes but -hopefully- that will only add sentimental value to it.
The tag on the inside says "Hecho en Guatemala" so that'll give you a good perspective on what we're looking at here. The main idea here is that this shirt was made by hand with care in a far off land. The Earth and native people are all supposed to represent peace and harmony all over the world. They are all different colors and genders, they could be you or me or someone you've never met. Now, I don't know if it was religious in origin, so they all could be "children of God" but that doesn't really matter as long as we all get along and coexist. I'll make a special note here that it does specifically represent the Western Hemisphere -the best hemisphere- so we can definitely exclude Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia from our awesome diverse harmony party.
When anyone sees this my goal is for them to instantly receive my message of unity and kinship across nationalities, race, creed, religion, etc. That everything will be alright if we can just work together for one beautiful goal. I imagine that some will think this is a cheap souvenir from Mexico or even Olvera Street, which could be true but is not the case. The branding is light on the shirt so I'll just hope they pick up the general theme and inquire if there are any misunderstandings.

I had a few reactions to this shirt today. The comments were mainly regarding the embroidery style. The first was from Mike, saying that the stitching looked weird from across the room. It was something that he couldn't put his finger on. I attributed it to the fact that it wasn't machine stitched and there is a lot of extra thread on there causing a 3D effect to be created since it is so bunched up and loose. Because of this effect it gets a little smooshed and wavy when sitting down. The other note was from my friend who was trying to pinpoint its origin. We agreed that it seemed of Latin descent, something from the Americas. He did indeed feel like it was something a kid would make. And after looking at the tag, and going over how I got it, his assumptions were verified by some colorful anecdotes about the outfit.