An Inspired Chat with Caitlin Garcia Ahern of Cabbagetown

We recently had the chance to connect with Caitlin Garcia Ahern and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Caitlin, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
My dogs! Since living in Oaxaca I have been spaying and neutering street dogs and finding homes for some of them. I currently live with a pack of 7 and they bring me joy every day.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Thread Caravan is an artisan-led travel company. We organize small group trips that combine meaningful cultural exchange with hands-on artisan workshops around the world. Our journeys are designed to foster connection: to the people, to the place, and to the process behind traditional craft.

At our core, we’re passionate about preserving heritage arts and supporting the communities that keep these practices alive. We partner directly with local artisans — from backstrap weavers in Guatemala to potters in Morocco — creating opportunities for travelers to learn directly from the source while contributing to sustainable income for artists.
What makes us unique is the balance we strike between immersive travel and intentional impact. Our trips aren’t just about seeing a place, they’re about participating in it respectfully.

Right now, we’re working on a media arm of our project, to help share the stories of our artisan partners on a larger platform, especially to people who may not be able to attend the trips.

Additionally we are focusing on fundraising for our Artisan Exchange Program, a program in which we invite artisan collaborators to attend trips in other communities, facilitating an even more profound level of cross-cultural exchange and creative collaboration.

And finally, we are partnering with Avte Bardo to launch a small retail shop, where we’ll finally start to offer unique handmade pieces created by our artisan partners.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
In middle school, my best friend was a Chilean, and had to move from Atlanta back to Chile because her family’s visa expired. After maintaining a friendship at an unbearable distance, I finally had the opportunity to go visit her a few years later. This was my first international trip and shaped me in many ways. One event that particularly stood out was a conversation with the woman who helped their family clean their home. I was asking her about her family, and she told me they were all disappeared during the Pinochet regime. Pinochet was a violent dictator, supported by the US, following a US-coupe. During his 17 year reign, Pinochet was responsible for the torture of tens of thousands of people, the forced exile of hundreds of thousands more, and the execution or disappearance of at least 3,000 Chileans. It stunned me that I had never even heard his name before, and demonstrated to me just how vast the world was outside of my childhood in Atlanta. My curiosity to connect with people around the world and hear their stories became insatiable, and ultimately, this curiosity became a driving force of my life.

What fear has held you back the most in your life?
One of the fears or limitations I am currently working through is scarcity mindset. In many ways, in Thread Caravan and my personal life, I have reached my own glass ceiling.
I’ve grown to the capacity within my own self-imposed barriers, based on past experiences and comfort.

In the past one of my biggest limitations related to scarcity has been financial — specifically, a fear of employing other people and being responsible for their income. If Thread Caravan doesn’t do well financially, their livlihood and families could suffer. I never want to be responsible for the suffering of anyone.

That said, after 10 years of running Thread Caravan in this way, I recognize this is a limiting belief, and it’s something I’m activity learning how to work through. I am taking financial courses to learn practical tools for making more grounded business decisions. And on a spiritual level, I am re-teaching myself that it’s okay to dream big and let my imagination run wild with possibility. That success within community means success for everyone — it doesn’t have to be either/or.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes — but it’s not the whole me.

What people often see through Thread Caravan is the curated version: beautiful landscapes, artisan workshops, colorful textiles, and meaningful moments of connection. And those parts are very real, but they’re just a part of the full picture, especially of my personal life.

The truth is, traveling this frequently is also exhausting. It involves long days, long flights, complex logistics, constant cultural sensitivity, navigating in new environments, and a level of emotional labor.

In my downtime, I run an animal rescue project in Oaxaca. On the surface, it looks like cute puppies available for adoption. But behind the scenes, it’s also unpredictable, demanding and heartbreaking.

All this to say, there is a little more grit happening in “real” life.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
One thing I’m doing today that likely won’t pay off on a large scale for at least 7–10 years is the work we’re doing through Caravana Canina, our dog rescue project in Oaxaca.

Street animal overpopulation is a deeply complex issue. There’s no quick fix, no overnight solution. It requires sustained effort, long-term strategy, a lot of patience and collaboration amongst different groups.

Every sterilization campaign we organize and each adoption that happens can feel like just a drop in the bucket, but are hopefully part of a long-term shift. We believe in the compounding power of consistency. While we emphasize each individual rescue, we also keep the bigger picture in mind: a shift in the entire eco-system, promoting the health, wellbeing and co-existence of animals and humans.

www.caravanacanina.org

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.threadcaravan.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caitlin.garcia.ahern
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/caitlin-garcia-ahern
• Youtube: http://youtube.com/@threadcaravan

Image Credits
Kate Berry, Luna Antonia Arboleda, Anais Wade, Lucy Laucht, Feli Gutierrez