| Description: | This arpillera was made by Guadalupe, a Peruvian woman, while learning the art of the arpillera in Chile. She became active in human rights after the disappearance of her husband and had travelled to Chile from her home in Ayacucho, Peru, to escape death threats. At the time there was a war between the Peruvian government and the Shining Path movement, which lasted from 1980 until 2000.
Guadalupe did not have much fabric to work with. One day she asked her friend Roberta Bacic with whom she was staying in Chile, for fabric scraps suitable for arpillera making. Being an academic, Roberta did not have much fabric lying around, but she asked her daughters if she could have the dresses from their dolls. She put those with some old socks and tea towels into a basket, which the artist used when creating this arpillera.
Her arpillera portrays Perú, her home, which she desperately missed while in Chile. Women and children are occupied in traditional activities such as cooking (top left) and preparing vegetables (centre). At the bottom right some spools of thread and other needlework materials are sitting on boxes, in preparation for the workshop that the artist dreamed of creating when she returned home to Peru. Shortly afterwards she did return home and knew that in returning she risked everything, including her life, but she simply could not bear to be away from her children and her homeland any longer. Within a few months of returning to Peru, on 10 June 1990, she disappeared after being abducted from her home by the military in the presence of her children. Three arpilleras, including this one, are her textile legacy.
In January 2023, after a lengthy legal process led by lawyer Carlos Rivera Paz and supported by many individuals and institutions, three members of the military were sentenced by the Peruvian National Criminal court for their role in the enforced disappearance of Guadulape. Petronio Fernández Dávila, former head of the Ayacucho Political-Military Command, received a 14 year prison sentence and General Eduardo García Daneri & Raúl O'Connor were sentenced to 12 years. In the words of Guadalupe’s son, Gonzalo Quispe Ccallocunto, this ruling “gives us the confirmation of what we always knew, that the military were the ones who kidnapped and disappeared her. As a family we feel validated because somehow the person she was still needs to be restored/dignified”.
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