In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

To create art containing messages about the failings and aggressions of the Pinochet dictatorship was a dangerous enterprise. How, then, did the arpilleras and arpillera making emerge? LIVES OF THE UNEMPLOYED WOMEN When they began making arpilleras in early 1975, the very first arpilleristas were living in poverty in shantytowns. Most were married, looking after their small children, and not working for an income.1 Their poverty had very recently worsened because their husbands, the family breadwinners for the majority, had lost their jobs.2 This unemployment was caused in part by the regime’s national security doctrine and use of violence to rid Chile of Marxists. Leftists were detained in soccer stadiums and detention centers or had to go into hiding, resulting in the loss of their jobs. At the same time, companies were firing leftist party or union members.3 As early as mid-October 1973, workers who were union leaders or sympathizers of the Allende government were being summarily dismissed from their jobs.4 Cristina, a member of one of the first arpillera groups, for example, told me that her husband had lost his job in a copper company because he was a Communist; he was being persecuted and had to flee to Peru and Bolivia. The junta’s“Shock Treatment”plan of economic recovery was another reason the men were losing their jobs. Begun in early 1975, it brought soaring unemployment, together with a depression, the decline of industrial and agricultural production, and price increases. Forty thousand public employees lost their jobs in the first six months of 1975.5 The men’s unemployment made their family’s financial problems more severe than usual. A year’s unemployment benefits was available under certain 2 Beginnings Unemployment and Joining Groups 27 Beginnings conditions, but if these conditions were not met, there would be only sporadic income from the unemployed person’s engaging in very short-term, one-off jobs (pololos), sometimes lasting only part of a day.6 Cristina, who lived in the shantytown of Villa O’Higgins7 in eastern Santiago, said, “We were very poor; we were all very poor.” Shantytown women found it difficult to pay for essentials such as food, water, electricity, and the children’s education, and this caused them considerable anxiety. Another of the very first arpilleristas, Anastasia of the shantytown of La Faena in eastern Santiago, discussed the women’s various deprivations with me: JA: And when you got there [to the arpillera group], what did you talk about? Anastasia: About the subject matter of our arpilleras, about what we were going through, about what each of us was short of, about how difficult it was living at that time. [. . .] JA: And when you say that you would talk about what you were short of, what does that mean? Anastasia: The things we were short of; that they would cut off the electricity, that they would cut off the water, that we didn’t have, let’s say, the means with which to subsist at that time. And that’s why we would look for those alternatives [joining groups]. So, the deprivations that affected us,“I didn’t pay the electricity bill this time,”“I don’t have money to pay for this,”“Tomorrow I won’t have anything to make a meal with,” and . . . We would look for the solution together. JA: And they would cut off the electricity because people would not pay? Anastasia: There was no money to pay for it. JA: And the water, too? Anastasia: Also, yes, they would cut off the water, the electricity, and there were many people who would hook their homes up to the electricity cables, and sometimes they would get caught, and the company would cut the cables. The conversation to which Anastasia refers points to the women’s anxiety about not having enough food for a meal or money for other essentials; their basic needs were threatened. Moreover, when one’s water and electricity were cut off, this produced still further difficulties.As well as talking about these deprivations during their workshop meetings, they depicted them in their arpilleras. Another poverty-related problem that worried many arpilleristas was having inadequate accommodation. Many lived with their husband and children in a room in a relative’s home, or in a very small, rudimentary wooden hut. The lucky ones lived in a small, semidetached brick house. Babette, one of the first arpilleristas of northern Santiago, described her home at the time she...

Share