Textile Details

'Somos Mujeres cesantes / We are unemployed women', Anonymous. (Photo: Martin Melaugh)

Here we see women from a poor neighbourhood in Santiago protesting about their lack of employment. For these women, with their men-folk disappeared or imprisoned through the repressive actions of the Pinochet dictatorship, earning money to feed their families was a daily struggle.

“Percale” cotton, probably from old aprons, is used for the trees and flowers. The bright sun and the mountains framed by a crochet border are classical arpillera features. The simple stitches indicate that the arpillerista was not a seamstress but an ordinary woman undergoing difficult times.

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