Seven years ago I found myself livi

Seven years ago I found myself living in San Diego, California taking a break from working life and traveling the world as much as I could to learn more about other cultures and their customs. I was looking for a change. Let me first introduce myself, my name is Carlos Mantilla and I am the founder of Ethnic Lanna. I was born in Mexico City from Peruvian parents and did most of my studies in the United States. After running a prosperous Satellite business in Sacramento, California I was ready for
a dramatic change in my life, so I moved to San Diego with my sister. I was ready to leave my work responsibilities and current life behind and start a simpler, happier life. So I decided to start traveling the world to find out where I could find this. During the next 2 years I visited over 25 countries, looking for my next adventure and home. During one of my trips, I decided that my calling was in South America and was one month away from moving to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I even had my one way ticket purchased. Then one day I got a call from a good friend of mine, Corwin to wish me a Merry Christmas..since Christmas was still a week away, I asked him “why are you calling me now”.. he answered “because tomorrow I’m leaving for Thailand”.. that sounded so exotic and unknown to me that I replied immediately “why didn’t you tell me before?!!… Can I come with you?”..withinhours I had booked my flight from Los Angeles to Bangkok for the day after Christmas.. and 7 years later here I am making beautiful handbags for appreciative customers around the world and helping some great people have a better life in this paradise of a country!
My family has always been involved in the trade business, and in recent years very involved in Fair Trade with Guatemala, so when I settled down in Chiang Mai as my city of choice in Thailand I very quickly realized that I had chosen one of the best places in the world to continue what I have always known is my calling as a career. I am a firm believer that if you do what you love, you do not work. I don’t work and I absolutely love what I’m doing.
Ethnic Lanna is a certified registered company in Thailand, which first started in 2009 when I first met Wichai, a Hmong artisan in the local Hmong market in Chiang Mai.
I immediately fell in love with the product his village produces and with him as a person. We have become great friends over the years, recently going on discovery trips together to Laos and China. He inspires me to be a better person and him and his people keep me motivated to make Ethnic Lanna the best Fair Trade company in Thailand. We started with just myself and my first employee Em 4 years ago and now we are 20 strong in our new office located in the city center of Chiang Mai (we invite you to come visit our showroom) which is ran by my partner since 2 years ago Tomi from Finland. Our manufacturing operation has also improved dramatically over these years and it will continue to do so, now hiring over 30 staff. We also work very closely with over 30 artisans in the North of Thailand and strive to adhere by the principles of fair trade on a daily basis. The goals for 2014 are to open an office in Mexico and start helping the indigenous communities in my home country as well as starting to work more closely with the Hmong hill tribes of Yunnan in China.
I hope with our customers’ help that we can continue to make a difference around the world for many years to come!