Juana Méndez

About this Presenter

Graduated as an Economist in 1983 from Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Since 1988 Juana is full time dedicated to her jewelery studio, developing commercial collections as well as author jewelery. During the past 8 years, Juana has studied the cultural value chain of traditional jewelery among indigenous peoples and ethnic communities from the Andean region in Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador, and the Wayuus in the Guajiran Peninsula in Colombia. She has developed for Artesanías de Colombia commercial collections and marketing strategies for the jeweller community in Mompox, Colombia. In 2016 she did a study on gold mining and the jewelry value chain in Chocó, Colombia. She published in 2019 the “Afrochocoan jewelery Catalogue” and next december she will publish the book “Somos hijos del Oro: Cultura del oro y la joyería en el Chocó” (We are gold sons: Gold culture and jewelery in Chocó). Now she is working on the “Barbacoas and Tumaco jewelery Catalogue”. These research and editorial Works are funded by Fundación ACUA and IFAD.