Arpilleras
[1] The production of arpilleras provided a vital source of income for the arpilleristas, many of whom had been left in a state of financial insecurity due to widespread unemployment and forced disappearances of their husbands and children, who became known as desaparecidos.
In September 1973, following months of political tensions and social unrest in Chile, the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in a US-backed coup d'etat.
The coup d'etat was carried out by the Chilean military forces under Augusto Pinochet in response to Allende's leftist reforms and the perceived threat of communism.
In the period immediately following the coup, the junta declared a state of emergency and engaged in arbitrary arrests and abolished all political parties and unions, with tens of thousands of people facing torture, interrogation, and execution in the following years.
[3] There is some debate about exactly how many people were killed or "disappeared" into the regime's prisons, torture chambers and unmarked graves for suspected political reasons over Pinochet's 16 years in power.
[10] Conversely, numerous groups with substantial women's participation emerged both out of opposition to the Pinochet government's repressive tactics and the need for economic subsistence.
[9] Shortly after the 1973 coup d'etat, various Catholic Church groups, inspired by liberation theology, began to organize in opposition to the military regime.
One such group, which also helped develop the first arpillera workshops in Santiago, was the Committee of Cooperation for Peace in Chile (Spanish: Comité de Cooperación para la Paz).
[11] The Vicariate of Solidarity was set up under the auspices of the Chilean Catholic Church, and took up the struggle for human rights in Chile where the Committee of Cooperation left off.
It was a vocal opponent of the military regime and a voice for human rights, and worked to provide assistance to Chilean citizens in the form of legal aid, health care, food, and employment.
[9][12] In March 1974, under the leadership of Valentina Bonne, a church official,[13] the first arpillera workshops held by the Vicariate of Solidarity were established to provide unemployed women with a modest income, create a community for emotional support, and draw international attention to the repressive political situation through the sale of denunciatory artwork.
[1] At the end of each gathering, a treasurer would collect the arpilleras for sale overseas to human rights organizations, NGOs, and groups of Chilean exiles.
[14] The primary purchasers of arpilleras were North American and European human-rights activists who wished to express their solidarity with victims of the regime, as well as Chilean exiles living abroad who hoped to raise international opposition to poverty and political repression in Chile.
[1][18] Rules on the amount of figures permitted in an arpillera and the required sizes, composition, proportion, colors, and themes were decided by the committee and afterward by the Vicariate.
[9][14][17] Most arpilleras were constructed from thick hessian canvasses, with colorful pieces of fabric stitched and embroidered together in appliqué style to form flat images of people, buildings, city streets, and landscapes.
[9] Arpilleristas also included more three-dimensional elements by using pieces of tin to serve as pots and pans, matchsticks and broom handles, and parts of plastic pill casings as bowls.
For example, colorful scraps of material were usually cut into triangular pieces and placed along the horizon of an arpillera to represent the wealth and beauty of Chile through various regions and seasons.
[9] Also, some arpilleras would depict scenes of village children eating from large soup pots in communal kitchens or individuals attempting to obtain food by waiting in a line.
Marjorie Agosín, a Chilean-American writer and arpilleras scholar, has compared the visual language with which the arpilleristas demanded justice for the desaparecidos with that of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, who wore photographs of their disappeared children during the Dirty War.
Sociologist Jacqueline Adams has noted that in the early 1980s, the Catholic Church grew less vocally critical of the Pinochet regime and dismissed the Vicariate's more radical staff members, which she contends led to a shift in the content of the arpilleras.
[18][20] Capital cities around the world, such as Washington D.C., and Chilean government-sponsored curio shops also currently possess arpilleras manufactured by Pinochet's regime.
[17] The arpillera movement has been lauded for its visual representation of life under the Pinochet regime and its subversive treatment of human rights and gender issues, having been displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum's 2014 Disobedient Objects exhibit.
[9] The foundation established stores in downtown Santiago and the airport to expose tourists to Chilean culture and to provide arpilleristas with the opportunity to sell their work for income.
[22] Arpilleras have also inspired stylistically and thematically similar works of art in other countries that have faced state violence, such as Colombia, Peru, Zimbabwe, and Northern Ireland.
