The Arpilleristas

How can I write about the inspiration that was the catalyst for my quilt? How can I write about a movement about which I’ve read not only sentences or paragraphs, but whole books?

First, the patch… At the center sits a circle of women around a table which is also the world. The top half, with the black background, takes place in Chile. The women work together to sew the arpilleras, the tapestries about their lives, their pain, their hope in the midst of a military dictatorship. One woman covers the window and the group sews in secret (a quilted conspiracy of hope, if you will). Why so secret? Even (and especially) in the sociopolitical context in which the women live, their society and their government recognize the incredible power and strength that lies in the traditionally feminine act of sewing. Marjorie Agosín writes that:

The arpilleras were born into a desolate and muffled period in Chilean culture, when citizens spoke in hushed voices, writing was censored, and political parties vanished. Yet the arpilleras flourished in the midst of a silent nation, and from the inner patios of churches and poor neighborhoods, stories made of cloth and yarn narrated what was forbidden. The arpilleras represented the only dissident voices existing in a society obliged to silence. The harsh military dictatorship that stressed domesticity and passivity was disarmed, muzzled by the arpilleristas, who through a very ancient feminine art, exposed with cloth and thread the brutal experience of fascism.[1]

The act of sewing brought the women together as a community and helped them heal individually, and it also provided them with a much-needed source of income and spread their messages and stories around the world.

We come now to the bottom half of the patch: the world, the sharing of messages. The woman in the top right covers a window, and at the same time a woman in the bottom left unveils an arpillera in another country (Canada, perhaps).

Throughout my quilting process, I have found myself intentionally and unintentionally referring back to the arpilleristas, connecting my experience with that of these incredible women who worked collectively to interpret their world and create their own truths.

[1] Agosín, Marjorie. Tapestries of Hope, Threads of Love: The Arpillera Movement in Chile 1974-1994. University of New Mexico Press. Albuquerque, NM. 1996. p. 12.

The act of sewing brought the women together as a community and helped them heal individually, and it also provided them with a much-needed source of income and spread their messages and stories around the world.

We come now to the bottom half of the patch: the world, the sharing of messages. The woman in the top right covers a window, and at the same time a woman in the bottom left unveils an arpillera in another country (Canada, perhaps).