Description: | As with several arpilleras from the early years of the Pinochet dictatorship, this piece brings us face to face with the daily poverty experienced by so many people, as a result of the harsh economic policies of General Pinochet. One response of local people was to set up soup kitchens: "We fight hunger by the way of organizing a community soup kitchen." (testimony received from a community organization in Santiago de Chile in 1983).
On many occasions, women, men and children banged empty pots with wooden spoons following a well known rhythm and singing a song addressed to Lucia Pinochet, wife of General Pinochet: "Lucía, Lucía, la olla está vacía."
This slogan, born from their daily experience of hunger in the shantytowns, was echoed during the widespread protests organized against the dictatorship between 1978 and 1990.
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