Textile Details

'¡Adiós Pinochet!/Good bye Pinochet!', Anonymous. (Photo: Colin Peck)

During the Pinochet era men were the main targets for arrest, torture and disappearances. Consequently, women started to play a wider role in public affairs and denounced the actions of the regime in the streets as well as in their arpilleras.

In this arpillera, women have gathered in the streets of a modest neighbourhood to demonstrate their frustration and confront the situation that they see is preventing them, and their community, from having a decent life. We can see that they are impoverished as they have no electricity supply in their little houses and have to steal it by attaching electrical cables to the source. In spite of this, they depict their homes in bright colours and against the backdrop of the mountains and the sun, a classical feature in the majority of arpilleras.

Here the women are protesting in two groups, each carrying a banner. One states: "Out Pinochet!" The other reads: "Good bye Pinochet!" When asked why they took on such a public role the women replied: "We've been hit by so many blows in life. We might as well be out on the frontlines now because many of us have nothing more to lose." (Agosín, M., (2008)Tapestries of hope, threads of love: The arpillera movement in Chile (second edition))

This arpillera was made in one of the workshops run and supported by Vicaría de la Solidaridad. It was acquired by Heidi and Peter in the context of international solidarity against Pinochet's dictatorship.

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