Latin American Fabric Art

Leticia Adriazola

Bio: My mother began making arpilleras shortly after the 1973 military coup. I was a little girl at the time. There was no money for food or other necessities, so a common meal pot was organized in the community. The arpilleras were sold and the money distributed to those who make them. The government persecuted the women and my mother and I were detained, tortured and moved frequently from one prison to another for several years. I have been making arpilleras now for many years to keep the memory of these events alive and demand that they are never repeated. 

Artist Statement:  

#1 The defense of artisanal fishing arose because large businesses enacted a fishing law that favored themselves, granting a larger fishing territory and displacing small artisanal fishing entrepreneurs.

#2 In the south of Chile, there is uncontrolled illegal harvesting of native araucaria trees. These are being replaced by fast-growing trees whose roots penetrate more deeply into the soil, absorbing more water, and contributing to environmental problems

#3 La Caravan of Death was a military action shortly after the coup d’etat of General Pinochet in which miners, agricultural workers, professors, public functionaries, students, social activists and many others were hunted down and executed. Many of the bodies of the victims have yet to be located. The continued protest of families and organizations is a reminder of the importance of truth, justice, and the preservation of the memory of these events so that the defense of human rights continues. 

#4 Decent housing is an important issue in Chile due to the high demand among families, as the government subsidy isn't enough and they can't afford to save, as the minimum wage is too low. Many people are also migrating from rural areas to cities, resulting in an increase in land seizures.

Jessica Ahumada 

Bio: I attended a subsidized primary school and the education was much better than in state schools. But that has changed. Education is controlled by commodities. Teachers don't work out of vocation, but rather as a job, and this has greatly harmed education. We're also burdened by bad practices remaining from the dictatorship and poor management of the public sector agreements regarding quality in education.

Artist statement: I made this arpillera because religion is deeply rooted in my country, and also because the Catholic Church in Chile was very supportive of the people during the dictatorship. I participated a lot in the worship services even though I’m not Catholic, and it has been a very enriching experience.

I show how peasant women carry out their subsistence work. I do this in homage to my maternal grandmother, Juanita, who was a peasant in her childhood. I also protest that women agricultural workers are paid less than men.

 Viviana Díaz

Bio: In 2016, I went to the Villa Grimaldi Peace Park with other women committed to defending human rights. There, I learned techniques for joining reclaimed fabrics with hand-stitching, with the goal of keeping alive the memory of when this place was converted by the dictatorship into a place of prison, torture, and extermination. Our collaborative work produced 17 works that speak to what happened there. 

Artist Statement: This work asks “where are they?” My daughter and her best friend were kidnapped, tortured, murdered, and their bodies disappeared during the dictatorship.

Claudia Espinoza Ojeda

Bio: I learned to embroider and knit as a child, watching my mother, who did it without following patterns. At first, it was my hobby, and soon my way of expressing myself. Later, I met a group of women survivors of the dictatorship in Chile, my country, who adopted embroidery as a form of expression and protest. Today, it is my way of standing up against injustice, rescuing memory, and defending human rights. 

Artist statement: This embroidery was created in Quillota, Chile, during the social uprising in October 2019.

 Gloria Gallardo 

Bio: I learned to make arpilleras at the Church of Jesus the Servant. We formed a group of community residents into a workshop where we could gather and sew, because the church was the only place we could get together. In this way, we generated a bit of money to care for our children. Through our arpilleras we showed the difficult reality that we were living in.

Artist Statement: This piece reflects our lived experience under the Pinochet dictatorship.

  PHF

Artist Statement: This arpillera recalls life in the rural areas, as it used to be. Although the full name of the artist is unknown, her initials are on the back of the cloth. This was often done for reasons of personal safety. The quality of the materials, the rustic stitching and the style of the figures suggest that this was made in the first years following the coup.

Ximena Valenzuela Rojas

Artist Statement: Inspired by a photograph, it took me two months to make this. I wish for respect for humanity and recognition of all of the Native groups. “No to extermination, yes to living together.” 

Note: The Selk´nam people, part of the Ona Indigenous group, lived on the island of Tierra del Fuego and the extreme southern region of Chile and Argentina. In the late 1800s, at the time of their first encounters with people of European descent, their population was estimated to be between 3,000 and 4,000 people. The encounter with outsiders devastated the Selk’nam, who had no resistance diseases brought by the outsiders. In addition, both governments turned a blind eye to the kidnapping and murder of this group by the immigrant ranchers and gold miners. By 1945, it was believed that the entire population was exterminated. However, in the 2017 census in Chile, 1144 people identified themselves as Selk’nam and they were officially recognized in 2022. JM

Ximena Valenzuela Rojas

Artist Statement: I made this piece in 2022, preparing to observe the 50th anniversary of the coup. I do not want my children and the world to forget what happened in Chile, It took me an entire month to sew it because the memories were so painful.

 Gabriela Miranda García

Bio: Gabriela Miranda García is a Mexican feminist theologian and popular educator. She paints, writes, and embroiders out of conviction, rage, tenderness, and indignation, seeking to show the reality of the world through beauty, because seeing reality directly would be unbearable. Her idea of art is that it's not for contemplation, but to disturb and motivate.

Artist Statement: Palestine should once again hear the song of the turtledoves.

 Maryuri Herrera 

Bio: I am a university student and activist in San José, Costa Rica.

Artist Statement: This piece was made as part of the march on International Women’s Day.