Tapestries of hope, threads of love: the arpillera movement in Chile

Review

To have these arpilleras reproduced in combination with Marjorie Agosin's compassionate and historical analysis in a new and updated edition is a gift to all those who continue in the struggle for human rights, social justice, and peace. It is also a vital testimonial to women's history, resistance, and culture in Chile and in all of Latin America. (Bettina Aptheker)

Praise for the first edition: For twenty years after General Pinochet took power in Chile, a group of arpilleristas protested government brutality by sewing simple and exquisite tapestries in memory of their dead, their tortured, their disappearedloved ones. Almost alone these brave women kep a vigil against the harsh regime by creating an art that is special to their sad and beautiful country. What the arpilleristas speak of in their gentle, agonizing fabrics must never be forgotten?in Chile, and around the globe. This book is a guardian of memory, an important and lonely work of art that radiates social conscience and illuminates the struggle to survive... (Nichols, John)

Praise for the first edition: Breaking through the silences of the violent Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, the burlap tapestries or arpilleras and the mothers of the disappeared in Chile who sewed them show the power of art to counter despair and injustice. Marjorie Agosín's Tapestries of Hope lifts the heart while displaying a whole new dimension to politics.... (Kaplan, Temma)

Hope and love, yes, but a fierce and tenacious witness as well, and an insistence on spare truth in the face of brute power: truth armored in a heartrending beauty. With grace and precision, poet Marjorie Agosin sings this suite of Latin American variations on the epics of Penelope's steadfast devotion and Antigone's defiant resolve. (Lawrence Weschler)

This book should be put in the hands of every student in America, North and South, so all can learn how a culture of fear turned Chile into a well of suffering under Pinochet. Marjorie Agosin's Tapestries of Hope is a shiva made of words, a sacred act of mourning and memory, at once beautiful and heartbreaking. By collecting the stories of the women in Chile who wove their sadness into works of art using the torn clothes of the disappeared, Agosin lets us grieve for those who are lost. At the same time, we join the brave makers of the arpilleras in defying the brutal torturers who attempted to erase the names of their loved ones from history. I thank Marjorie Agosin with all my heart for the gift of this book. It is a gift for all humanity, as great books always are. (Behar, Ruth)

Praise for the first edition: Tapestries of Hope, Threads of Love tells the wonderful story of not forgetting-in cloth. The arpilleristas create their persistent, decades-long acts of remembering their children, companions, parents, and refusing political amnesia. (Grace Paley)

Praise for the first edition: Breaking through the silences of the violent Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, the burlap tapestries or arpilleras and the mothers of the disappeared in Chile who sewed them show the power of art to counter despair and injustice. Marjorie Agosín's Tapestries of Hope lifts the heart while displaying a whole new dimension to politics. (Kaplan, Temma)

Praise for the first edition: For twenty years after General Pinochet took power in Chile, a group of arpilleristas protested government brutality by sewing simple and exquisite tapestries in memory of their dead, their tortured, their disappeared loved ones. Almost alone these brave women kep a vigil against the harsh regime by creating an art that is special to their sad and beautiful country. What the arpilleristas speak of in their gentle, agonizing fabrics must never be forgotten—in Chile, and around the globe. This book is a guardian of memory, an important and lonely work of art that radiates social conscience and illuminates the struggle to survive. (Nichols, John)

By interweaving bleak storytelling with powerful, colorful de