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'Lucía, Lucía, la olla está vacía / The pots are empty', Anonymous. (Photo: Colin Peck)

As with several arpilleras from the early years of the Pinochet dictatorship, this piece brings us face to face with the daily poverty experienced by so many people, as a result of the harsh economic policies of General Pinochet. One response of local people was to set up soup kitchens: "We fight hunger by the way of organizing a community soup kitchen." (testimony received from a community organization in Santiago de Chile in 1983).

On many occasions, women, men and children banged empty pots with wooden spoons following a well known rhythm and singing a song addressed to Lucia Pinochet, wife of General Pinochet: "Lucía, Lucía, la olla está vacía."

This slogan, born from their daily experience of hunger in the shantytowns, was echoed during the widespread protests organized against the dictatorship between 1978 and 1990.

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