Gendered Archives

This project examines the role that arpilleras (storytelling quilts) workshops play in intergenerational knowledge transmission as a gendered and sensorial archive of community history.

During the Pinochet Dictatorship (1973-1990) women throughout peri-urban Santiago formed arpillera workshops in collaboration with international human rights organizations. While most scholars have emphasized the historic role that arpillera workshops played in international human rights campaigns against the Pinochet Dictatorship, the ongoing reach of these solidarity campaigns can be traced in the international circulation of storytelling quilts (arpilleras), sewn by women’s groups in Santiago’s poblaciones. These works now form the basis of arpillera collections such as The Conflict Textiles Collection in Derry, North Ireland, and the Oshima Hakko Museum in Nagano, Japan.

Moreover, arpillera groups continue to produce storytelling quilts and host workshops to teach younger generations long after the end of the dictatorship. In contrast to the arpilleras archived in international museums and human rights organizations, the arpilleras that continue to circulate in peri-urban Santiago depict practices of community resilience such as pirating electricity, preparing food in community kitchens, constructing neighborhood infrastructure, and supporting incarcerated community members. Consequently, I examine how arpilleras reflect local notions of democracy by serving as a sensory and gendered archive of political life in peri-urban Santiago