The Anonymous Women Who Embroidered the Cruel History of the Chilean Dictatorship

[Judi Lynn]

The arpilleras narrated the course of Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship through bold colors, broad stitching, and striking imagery, often incorporating fabrics from their disappeared children’s clothes.

Rosa Boshier February 21, 2020



Arpillera from Arte, Mujer y Memoria: Arpilleras from Chile at the Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach,
California (all images by the author for Hyperallergic)

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Memory slips between our fingers, settling somewhere between fact and fiction. However, the fearless resistance conveyed through the arpilleras — small traditional quilts sewn upon burlap — on display at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) does not leave the memories of Chile’s brutal military dictatorship (1973–1990) up for interpretation. Curated by MOLAA’s director of education, Gabriela Martínez, Arte, Mujer y Memoria: Arpilleras from Chile features 30 arpilleras, by mostly anonymous female artists, that depict the cruelty of Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship.

On September 11, 1973 Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, was overthrown by CIA-backed Chilean armed forces, prompting almost two decades of political persecution under the rule of Augusto Pinochet, who held the presidency until 1990 and oversaw the military until 1998. Alleging economic crisis and social unrest, Pinochet’s newly instated military government set about undoing social programs, suspending the constitution, and enforcing violence against Chilean citizens deemed disloyal. Under Pinochet, men with long hair were shaved in public. Books considered antagonistic to the Pinochet regime were forbidden. Hunger in the general population reached 60%. More than 3,000 Chileans “disappeared” in clandestine ways, and tens of thousands more were abducted and tortured.



Arpillera from Arte, Mujer y Memoria: Arpilleras from Chile at the Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach,
California



Arpilleras from Arte, Mujer y Memoria: Arpilleras from Chile at the Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach,
California

The women left behind — many of them mothers of those murdered — came together to demand justice through both protest and art-making. Chilean author Marjorie Augosín maintains that these women often found and recognized each other while searching for their loved ones in hospitals and morgues. Common Thread (2019), a documentary by Anthony Rauld featured in Arte, Mujer y Memoria, informs viewers that on the second day of the new military takeover, women started organizing movements to resist. One of those movements was the establishment of arpillera workshops. The arpilleras narrated the course of Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship through bold colors, broad stitching, and striking imagery, often incorporating fabrics from their disappeared children’s clothes.

As the majority of disappeared people were men, women began looking for alternative modes of income. Beginning in March 1974, the Chilean Catholic Church, which opposed the Pinochet regime, provided materials and meeting space to the arpilleristas, as well as avenues to sell their works internationally. Pinochet later denounced the arpilleras, forcing the women to work in secret. According to the organization Forging Memory, the church smuggled the arpilleras out of the country once their production became illegal, using special diplomatic pouches that the government troops and police could not touch. By the late 1970s, the arpilleras had become a major industry.

More:
https://hyperallergic.com/542850/arte-mujer-y-memoria-arpilleras-from-chile-molaa/

[Warpy]

1. Not just Chile, arpilleras were also popular in Peru at about the same time

The Boston Public Library had a great exhibit of them in the late 80s, pointing out the politics in seemingly innocent, like scenes of women and children in the garden, meaning the men had all been murdered or rounded up and marched off to join either the government or the rebels. It was not just decorative, it was a way of alerting other villages in the area to just what was going on.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Had no idea this had happened in Peru, also. So little truth gets through re. LatAm history to us

since the reactionaries in our government have always totally encouraged and supported dictators who care absolutely nothing about the masses of people in their countries, and bow and scrap and curry favor with corporate, political, and military power here.

Went to find who was in charge in Peru in the late 1980's, and was horrified to see how awful Alan Garcia was in his first term. It's inconceivable that somehow the people of Peru actually elected him again in the 2000's. I absolutely HAVE to believe that was corruptly arranged.

For anyone who doesn't know what happened at that time, here's some of his Wikipedia. I think it goes without saying what is written here merely scratches the surface. That's usually the way things go:

His presidency was marked by world-record hyperinflation with the annual rate exceeding 13,000 percent per year. Alan García's inept and corrupt administration devastated the local economy as well as all governmental institutions. Hunger, corruption, injustice, abuse of power, partisan elitism, and social unrest raised to dramatic levels spreading throughout the whole nation due to García's misdeeds and incompetence, spurring terrorism. The economic turbulence exacerbated social tensions and contributed in great part to the rise of the violent Maoist rebel movement known as the Shining Path, which launched the internal conflict in Peru and began attacking electrical towers, causing a number of blackouts in Lima. The period also saw the emergence of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA).[19] The García administration unsuccessfully sought a military solution to the growing terrorism, allegedly committing human rights violations, which are still under investigation. These include the Accomarca massacre, where 47 campesinos were gunned down by armed forces in August 1985;[20] the Cayara massacre (May 1988), in which some thirty people were killed and dozens disappeared;[21] and the summary execution of more than 200 inmates during prison riots in Lurigancho, San Juan Bautista (El Frontón) and Santa Bárbara in 1986.[22][23] According to an official inquiry, an estimated 1,600 forced disappearances took place during García's presidency. His own personal involvement in these events is not clear. García was allegedly[by whom?] tied to the paramilitary Rodrigo Franco Command, which is accused of carrying out political murders in Peru during García's presidency. A U.S. declassified report, written in late 1987, said that García's party, APRA, and top government officials were running a paramilitary group, responsible for the attempted bombing of the El Diario newspaper, then linked to Shining Path, had sent people to train in North Korea and may have been involved in executions.[24] According to investigative journalist Lucy Komisar, the report made it clear that it believed García had given the orders.[24]

Alan García's historical economic failures were used by economists Rudi Dornbusch and Sebastian Edwards to coin the term macroeconomic populism.[25] At García's farewell speech, he was booed by the entire opposition forces and prevented him from speaking. The anecdotical event was televised. That same day the board of the Chamber of Deputies requested the creation of a special committee to investigate García's Presidency, accusing him of massive corruption and illicit enrichment. The committee attacked García with numerous proven accusations involving embezzlement, missappropiation and bribery, based -among other trustworthy sources- on a U.S. congressional investigation that linked García with the BCCI scandal and had found millions of dollars in this as well as other banks. In 1991, New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau charged García officially. Later in 1992, then Senator John Kerry presided over the BCCI Scandal Report (https://archive.org/details/TheBCCIAffair), which concluded García was not only guilty of corruption, but directly involved in an international racketeering network with activities that included drug and arm trafficking. Finally, the Peruvian Supreme Court, then controlled by García's partner in crime, president Alberto Fujimori's right hand Vladimiro Montesinos and president of the judiciary system, freemason and fujimorist Alejandro Rodríguez Medrano, overturned illicitly prior verdicts declaring null all the probes and constitutional accusations gathered against García, allowing him to return to Peru after a 9-year long self-imposed exile and become presidential candidate to protect fujimorists from prosecution for their widespread corruption, ensuring reciprocity with a member of their own good old boy and cleptocratic network.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Garc%C3%ADa

Thanks for the information. You have given those of us who haven't known a lot of LatAm history, yet, a good starting place for Peru. So helpful.

Bless these brave women.

[Warpy]

3. There were bits and pieces on the "news" about Sendero Luminoso

which was the indigenous uprising, labeling it Marxist. I've never seen their own story told, but eventually they went the way of all underfunded armies and became almost as much of a problem as government forces.

At least now we have the net and can read the BBC to find out where things are happening around the world. People who can read more than one language can search out local news and read that, at least the official side, and hope someone does an exhibit like the one at the Boston Public Library for some of the other side.