Art Against Dictatorship: Making and Exporting Arpilleras Under Pinochet

7. The Buyers Abroad

The individuals who bought the arpilleras wanted to help the arpilleristas and express solidarity with them,and they were sympathetic to the anti-dictatorship cause. Because they bought out of solidarity, I call these buyers a solidarity market. As Gertrudis, a Vicaría employee, said: “The arpillera was something that was very solidarity focused (solidario) across the world. In other words, people bought them for solidarity reasons, like a reflection of the denunciation and like a reflection of what was happening in the country, to give support to the women, to support what the women were doing.” Buyers abroad were mostly locals from the countries in which the arpilleras were sold and Chilean exiles. A small proportion of buyers were leftist Chileans and foreigners in Chile. LocaL Buyers Local buyers tended to be politically sensitive, Left-leaning individuals interested in helping people in less fortunate circumstances; a number supported struggles against oppression around the world. Sam, in Britain, described them in this way: I would say mostly leftists. Yeah. Socialist leftists. Yeah, sympathetic to, you know, anti-military [laughter] feelings, if you know what I mean. They were apt to be interested in politics or human rights, knowledgeable about world politics, and, according to one seller, not focused on money. Many of them had heard about what was happening in Chile. Some were vaguely 7 The Buyers Abroad 186 Art Against Dictatorship aware about what was going on and happy to learn more by talking to the arpillera salesperson. Others were quite knowledgeable because they were activists in other human rights struggles against repressive regimes and were in contact with people selling arpilleras. Still others had a particular interest in Chile and were attracted to things Chilean, especially objects connected with the resistance. Olga, who sold arpilleras in France, found that buyers were aware of what was happening in Chile, often wanted to know more, and were sympathetic toward the anti-dictatorship struggle. Meanwhile Olivia described the Belgians who went to the peñas where arpilleras were sold as interested in the Allende government and having read a lot about Chile. In some contexts, levels of interest varied, however. Belinda recalled that some people who stopped at her stall in the street during neighborhood fêtes in Switzerland asked questions about the arpilleras, while others did not, merely buying because their children wanted one. On the other hand, her buyers at the United Nations General Assembly in Geneva were interested, she said. Sellers described buyers as gente solidaria (solidarity-oriented or supportive people), and as possessing a “social consciousness”; Linda used the term “solidarity folk.” Olivia, in Belgium, used similar terms when I asked her about her buyers: Ja: And the public in these different places,in the peñas that you described,in the churches, in the “Souterrain,” was it the same, or were there differences? I mean, the people who bought arpilleras? olivia: No, I’d say it was the same. I mean the same group. I mean, a big group whom we would ask to please bring their neighbors, their cousins, their, for example, their friends. So they would show up with more people, but it was always these types of warmly supportive faces,of solidarity-oriented people.I mean,for example,if you asked me if it was the bulk of the Belgian population, I’d say no, it wasn’t; it wasn’t the bulk of the Belgian population. I don’t know if at some stage Belgium as a country got to know what an arpillera was; I don’t know, I couldn’t tell you. Because it was not something so, so popular like pop music or like, I don’t know. But yes, groups of Belgians who were frie—, people who liked Chile, solidarity-oriented people, intellectuals, workers with a social consciousness, that type of person. Left-wing people, let’s say. [. . .] It was always the same type of person. Left-wing people, solidarity-oriented people, intellectuals, workers with a social consciousness. These were the people who would buy the arpilleras. Solidarios, meaning warmly supportive or solidarity oriented, is an adjective that Olivia and other sellers used often when describing the buyers of arpilleras. Some buyers were churchgoers. In Belgium and France, there were Catholic buyers who bought as they left Mass, from sellers who set up a table just outside 187 The Buyers Abroad the church. Constanza’s family...