Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum introduced a new credit program called “ApoyArte” to help Indigenous women artisans during her visit to the state of Guerrero on Sunday. The program is named after the words “apoyar,” which means to support, and “arte,” meaning art. It aims to help these women by providing interest-free loans of up to 30,000 pesos (about $1,608) with longer repayment periods.
Sheinbaum said being the first female president makes her focus more on all women in the country, especially Indigenous women who have been overlooked for a long time. The program is run by Financiera del Bienestar, also known as Finabien. It helps these women cover the costs of making textiles, which should help them become more financially independent.
During her visit, Sheinbaum met with Indigenous women from the Amuzgo community in Xochistlahuaca. These women still use the backstrap loom, an old textile-making method that the government wants to keep alive.
The National Fund for the Promotion of Handicrafts, called Fonart, will offer financial guidance to the women and help sell their clothing at fair prices. So far, about 11,000 loan applications have been received, and almost 6,000 women have already received approval. The program has been funded with 170 million pesos ($9.1 million).
The goal is to provide 500 million pesos ($26.8 million) to 17,000 artisans this year, especially in areas like Guerrero and Oaxaca where many Indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities live.
Sheinbaum’s government has named 2025 as the Year of the Indigenous Woman.
Mexico was recently ranked among the top 15 countries for entrepreneurship in a study by the digital finance company Remitly. While Mexico has a strong spirit of entrepreneurship, the study found that there is a big gap in creating new businesses because of limited funding and a lack of knowledge about running a business. Programs like ApoyArte are meant to help fix these problems.
