These six faces of the disappeared, framed by the question “¿Dónde están” are in placard form ready to be used in a non violent street action. This protest arpillera demands answers; it demands truth and justice for the detained - disappeared, the executed and those imprisoned and tortured during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973 - 1990).
Violeta’s brother Newton, union president at the Sumar Polyester factory, was detained and disappeared on 13th August 1974. Like thousands of other families she began the relentless search for news of his location; never finding answers. She recalls: “From the despair emerged the idea of making arpilleras…that would denounce what we and our country were living…the harsh, sad story of our ruined country”. (Agosín, M) “Tapestries of hope, threads of love: The Arpillera movement in Chile” (second edition)
Her denouncement and resistance went beyond making arpilleras. She was an active member of the Association of Detained and Disappeared (AFDD), founder member of the Folkloric Musical Ensemble of Relatives of the detained-disappeared and Co-ordinator of the group Movement Against Torture Sebastián Acevedo.
3,216 people are currently recognised by the Chilean state as having been killed or disappeared by the dictatorship. A new state search initiative, announced in 2023, considers 1,469 of them to be still missing. Observatorio de Justicia Transicional, Universidad Diego Portales, Chile (2023)
Laura Taylor McNeill bought this arpillera in 1989 when she and her friend Lewellyn Bell travelled to Chile from the USA in solidarity with those resisting the military dictatorship. Before her death Laura requested Lewellyn to bequeath this piece to a textile collection. Lewellyn passed it on to her long time friend Gayla Jamison, who posted it to Roberta Bacic, to become part of the Conflict Textiles collection, which now houses a total of five arpilleras by Violeta.
The meandering, cross continent route of this arpillera of denouncement - through various solidarity networks, over several decades - actualises Violeta's aspiration that “arpilleras serve as testimony for other generations, not only in Chile, but in the whole world”. (Agosín, 2008). | 
