When customers walk into the unmarked, unassuming red building on Bellflower Boulevard, they are immediately engulfed by a colorful tapestry of handmade, hand-selected traditional items from throughout Mexico and greeted with a cheerful, “Hello!” from deep inside the store.
Long Beach’s newest storefront Amarte is in its infancy as a fairtrade-inspired shop, but bystanders wouldn’t know that by walking in.
Each item, from the double-woven family-sized hammocks from Guerrero, Mexico to the radiant beaded bracelets and earrings from Senegal, Africa are meticulously crafted by artists and collectives chosen by shop owner Claribel Valdovinos.
“I feel like a lot of the partners I partner with, it’s grounded in a friendship and mutual dignity. It was always the connections,” Valdovinos said. “A lot of the artisans are family friends that I know personally, so I approach it from … it’s very much grounded in fair trade principles, but behind that, it’s actual connections with real people and friends and family.”
Although Valdovinos’ storefront is not fair trade certified, the principles inspired her vision for a shop early on.
Her education in Chicano studies and fashion merchandising at Long Beach State, then a master’s at UCLA in Latin American studies, crystallized her mission to honor her ancestors through fair trade principles.
Seeing the reality of sweatshops and labor exploitation affecting her people from Mexico to Los Angeles mobilized her. Valdovinos uses her shop as a way to amplify her culture while also being careful not to diminish the labor that goes into traditional Mexican pieces and artifacts.
“My project went really deep as far as how our fair trade practices are with our neighboring countries and how it impacts society and everyday folks,” Valdovinos said. “I kind of started seeing the bigger connections of like, we could not only preserve ancestral artistry, but also give agency to people to do what they want to do, not feel like ‘I have to go somewhere to survive,’ or be put under certain working conditions.”
It was during a 2011 trip with Schools for Chiapas in Mexico where Valdovinos met a group of women that encouraged her to take the next steps in her business journey.
She was six months pregnant at the time and relied on the community around her to perfect her ideas for a store, while buying any items that stuck out to her during her travels.
Amarte owner, Claribel Valdovinos, unviels a hand made candle that is sold at her Long Beach store on May 21, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Woven hammocks made in a traditional style by local artisans in Guerrero, Mexico, are on display at Amarte in Long Beach on May 21, 2022. The hammocks vary in size from one to four people. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Amarte owner, Claribel Valdovinos, explains the origin of one of the traditional Mexican dresses sold at her Long Beach store on May 21, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Amarte owner, Claribel Valdovinos, adjusts a display inside her shop on May 21, 2022. The store was formed from Valdovinos’s desire to preserve and celebrate traditional cultural craftwork. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Vibrant woven decor decorates an east wall inside Amarte on May 21, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Soapko soap on display near the window of Amarte in Long Beach on May 21, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)
Valdovinos can recall arranging pop-up shops in 2008 with only the objects she was able to carry in her backpack from previous trips, a long call from the impressive display adorning the walls of her storefront.
Investments in herself and her business back then consisted mostly of luggage fees and a small white table to display her scrupulously selected artifacts.
It’s the same table she used for several pop-up events in Long Beach after becoming a partner with Fair Trade Long Beach, a collective of activists, artists and ethical businesses in the city.
It’s the same white table that welcomes people as they enter Valdovinos’ new shop, less than two months old, topped with newly selected items.
Some of the most popular items in the shop come from a women’s collective in Oaxaca that Valdovinos met two years ago.
The collective of roughly a dozen mothers, sisters and daughters spend weeks hand-crafting traditional blouses, dresses and jewelry. One of the most sold items, according to Valdovinos, are palm-sized embroidered hearts that the daughters make for practice when they are just starting to learn.
“What’s so cool is that now the next generation, like their children, are still preserving the craft but evolving it into their own style,” Valdovinos said.
The shop is something Valdovinos dreamt about since she was in high school. After doing pop-up shops for almost a decade, her chance to put down roots in Long Beach finally appeared through Teresa Baxter of Fair Trade Long Beach, who told her about a vacancy next door.
The two had met through Instagram, messaging about the shop’s embroidered hearts, and quickly became a part of the same tight-knit community.
“Claribel and I share a compassionate heart in caring for the integrity and artistry of our ancestors, and honor that at our retail spaces,” Baxter said. “I’m honored that she started this mission as a former partner, and now my neighbor in her own shop next door to mine.”
Though she has a location solidified now, Valdovino explains the hard work has only begun. She has plans to sell California native plants out of her shop, to use the upstairs area as a space to workshop, vision board, or whatever other community events her and “other creative folks” can think of.
Her priority at the moment, when she is not looking for artists to collaborate with, is to prepare the storefront for its grand opening, Saturday, June 11 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The event will coincide with Fair Trade Long Beach’s Second Saturdays, where small business vendors and local artists engage in an open-air market.
Amarte is located at 4105A Bellflower Blvd. and open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
