“Selfishness and envy have not allowed us to work together,” he said.

Even with a collective approach, the village artisans would still be constrained by the absence of basic infrastructure. There is not a single bank branch in the entire municipality of Tenango de Doria. The road to San Nicolás is paved but most of the other villages are at the end of dirt roads.

As a result, many artisans have no choice but to sell to middlemen who arrive on market days and set the prices.

“We compete among ourselves and that lowers the price,” Ms. López said as she unfolded an elaborate tablecloth that she designed and embroidered, and that she said should cost about $250. A buyer in the Tenango de Doria market would offer only $150, she said.

But perhaps the biggest concern in the village is how many in the next generation will want to follow their parents.

Faustina José, 43, grew up in a family of eight children and they all embroidered. Only one of her four children draws and embroiders with her; the other three are in the United States.

“It is being lost,” she said of the craft that helped lift her out of poverty. “Young people don’t want to do it. They prefer to work, or to study.”