Textile Details

'Olla común en una población / Soup kitchen in a barrio', Anonymous. (Photo: Martin Melaugh)

This arpillera depicts the hunger and poverty that is wrought by conflict and social injustice. Created during the Pinochet dictatorship, it depicts both the desperation of hunger among the poor, forced to seek food from church charities, and also the resilience of those who find ways to ensure that the worst affected are not left hungry.

Soup kitchens, similar to the one portrayed in this arpillera, were a life line for the impoverished during the Pinochet regime. Church charities such as the Vicaría de la Solidaridad and later, the Fundación Solidaridad, were in the forefront in setting them up. María Madariaga, whose husband was unemployed and who wondered how she could provide food for her children, recalls what the soup kitchen meant for her family, even though not all of them could benefit from it: “There was an age limit to abide by…of my three children at the time, only one was able to eat…We thought it was better that one eats than none…” (Agosín, ibid).The need was so great that difficult choices had to be made, both within the family and in the organization, which meant that for Maria and her husband: “the days were especially long…because there was nothing to eat.”

Textile Detail Image(s)