Patch conceptualized, designed, and made by Hannah and her friend Liz Cohen; writing by Hannah and Liz

Dear Liz,

It was so much fun making this patch with you.  You did the sewing, I did the writing, but the process was much more collaborative than even that suggests… discussing ideas, sharing materials, watching the concept develop in our interactions…

I’m going to say a little about what this patch means to me and why I wanted it on the quilt.  People often say that in the United States, the feminist movement has operated on the idea that the personal is political, while women’s movements in Latin America have revolved more around the political being personal.  These are hard ideas for us to wrap our minds around, but the point is that the political repression in various countries throughout Latin America has affected women personally and deprived them of their traditional motherly roles within the home.  This patch in particular depicts the transformative process that women in so many places have undergone through which they go from being the mothers of their own sons to the mothers of all of the mothers’ sons, and indeed of the whole country. 

A couple quotes:

“‘At the beginning…each mother is so overwhelmed by a situation she does not understand that she goes out in search of her own son.  But then she changes, and she searches not only for her son but for all other children.  We work for all of them.’” – Maria Adela, 71 years old (at the time of the article), whose only son disappeared in Argentina on November 10, 1976.[1]

“‘As women we participate in the Agrupación because…we are the women and mothers of this land, of the workers, of the professionals, of the students, and of future generations.’”[2]

Through these experiences, women come to occupy public spaces and begin to redefine their roles not simply our of ideological commitment but out of personal necessity.

I open this to you now… No specific questions, but feel free to write whatever comes to your mind.

Thanks, Liz.

Love Hannah

Hideho Hannah:

Yes, this patch was remarkably collaborative.  Actually, the more I think about our collaboration, the more I realize that the making of this patch (and the entire quilt) reflects, or repeats, the theme of this little patch.

This was one of the first patches that you made, and the first one that you made at my apartment.  You began telling me about your ideas for a patch on “the personal becoming political” and the stories you wanted to include, which sparked a conversation about how to create the patch itself.  We started trading sketches and whittling down the many stories that could fall under that heading.  The theme of the patch changed slightly.  Eventually, since I had such a clear understanding of what you wanted on the patch, we decided that I could sew the patch, while you worked on another one.  That was my initiation to the incredible experience of sewing a part of this quilt.  I guess you could also say that it was the first sewing party!  After we worked together on this patch, it seemed that in time more and more people constantly wanted to contribute however they could to your quilt.

That simple process – of you sharing your thoughts with me, incorporation my ideas with yours, us working together, and then lots and lots more people getting involved in similar ways – is exactly what the patch is about.  The women about whom this patch was created each had individual “projects,” so to speak: they all wanted to find their missing loved ones.  In time, they shared ideas and experiences with each other, and created a movement in which each person contributed in whichever ways she could.  None of them probably anticipated the ways in which their lives would change once other people got involved, just as this patch and the whole quilt took on new and unexpected dimensions with the contributions of so many women.  The women in Argentina and Chile created a movement; we created a quilt.

Thank you so much for starting this.

Love,

Liz