This arpillera was made as part of a workshop titled “Let us sew our rights!” facilitated by Esther Pardo on behalf of Sabadell City Council in Catalonia, between April and June 2017.
Dolores, who is over 80, shares with us what prompted her to create this piece: “So often I watch on TV the very many people risking their lives when crossing the Mediterranean. They do it escape poverty and war.
This injustice hurts and I wanted to speak about it in my arpillera; the inequality between the ones who tour in luxury cruises and the ones who die in the sea and to whom frontiers are closed. I also wanted to show a rescue boat so as to highlight the valuable work done by such organizations.”
UNCHR (quoted in Aljazera news) states that during 2016, around 5000 people died crossing the Mediterranean in their attempt to reach Europe. This death toll was the highest recorded, despite fewer people trying to cross than in 2015. Al Jazeera (2016).
Greater use of flimsy, overcrowded boats – a response by smugglers to EU-led efforts to disrupt their activities - accounted for this rising death toll, described by Amnesty International as a humanitarian crisis. A perfect storm: The failure of European policies in the central Mediterranean (Amnesty International, 2017).
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