Tapestries of Hope, Threads of Love: The Arpillera Movement in Chile by Marjorie Agosín (review)

Book Reviews Along with Santerı́a, the sister Afro-Cuban religion of Palo Monte, which means “trees of the forest,” is deeply rooted in the cultural, linguistic , and ritual practices of Cuban society. Palo Monte’s history can be traced back to the Bantu-speaking peoples from the Congo and Angola religions in West-Central Africa. This belief is embedded in the powers of the dead along with the combination of practical and mystical forces that charge the natural world. These energies coalesce in Congo-Cuban ideas about el monte or “the forest.” Physically and conceptually rich, this holistic terrain is the dwelling place of the powers that infuse the Palo universe and the source of many of the materials—leaves, plants, trees, and other substances—essential to Palo Monte religious practice. Importantly, both Professor Claire Garoutte and photographer /independent scholar Anneke Wambaugh introduce to viewers and readers numerous years of experience and research in Afro-Cuban culture and society. The book features over a hundred beautiful and rich photographs in black and white as well as color. Each of these photographs draws viewers into a world rarely witnessed. These images offer an unprecedented opportunity to better understand the diversity of Afro-Cuban religious traditions. As visual documents, the photographs encourage their audience to look beyond the stereotypical depictions of a religious culture and a nation that have so often been misrepresented and misunderstood. One of the most intriguing aspects of the book are the photographic essays, which compliment and coincide with the various images. These photographic narratives draw heavily on interviews with Vera himself. The book illustrates that the scholarly research and the personal experiences of both authors is important and vivid throughout the study. Complementing the photographs is Vera’s world and contextualization of his ideas within the larger spectrum of Afro-Cuban spirituality. In conclusion, from a visual perspective Crossing the Water introduces one into an illuminating world of Afro-Cuban spiritualism. From a cultural and historical perspective the photographs provide a better understanding to viewers of the power of Afro-Cuban culture and religion and its impact on the people and their beliefs.Overall, Crossing the Water provokes intensity of human-sprit interactions, sights, smells, sounds, and a vivid choreography of ritual practice. Christina Violeta Jones National Archives and Records Administration College Park, Maryland TAPESTRIES OF HOPE, THREADS OF LOVE: THE ARPILLERA MOVEMENT IN CHILE. By Marjorie Agosı́n. 2nd Edition. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008, p. 175, $19.95. Marjorie Agosı́n, award-winning poet and human-rights activist, presents us with the second edition of her brilliant and heart-wrenching 91 The Latin Americanist, June 2009 work. No history or treatise can explain to the reader better than the arpillera movement what the citizens of Chile endured under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973–1989). The arpilleras are pieces of cloth sewn together by women into a tapestry that protests the disappearance of their husband, father, brother, son, or, occasionally, daughter during Pinochet’s rule. The arpilleras reflect the pain, loss, loneliness, and desire to know of the arpilleristas. They become the only persistent voice of the Chilean people in spite of the silence imposed on their country. The arpilleras were, are, and shall remain symbols of the courage, love, and dedication that so many Chilean women possessed in their struggles to learn the fate of their loved one and combat the dire poverty in which they lived. Isabel Allende points our in her forward to the edition: “Agosı́n validates the experiences of those courageous women, gives them a voice, and saves their stories from oblivion. Like those women and their arpilleras, this book is as subversive and defiant as it is beautiful” (x). The work contains a chronology of Chile from 1941–2006, which can be very beneficial for students seeking an historical frame of reference. Peter Kornbluh provides an insightful introduction on the events leading up to the Pinochet coup. Not only does he focus on the presidency of Salvador Allende, but also he shows clearly the interest of the U.S. government in Chile, especially that of the CIA. He makes the cogent point that during the Pinochet regime the...