Introduction to the Dialogues on Repairing the Fabric of Society through Needlework

Abstract

In these Dialogues, Lorna Dillon brings together essays that explore the relationship between fiber art and social justice in Latin America. The authors discuss Chilean arpilleras, needlework projects and the struggle for peace in Colombia, the Mexican Embroidering for Peace Movement, and Margarita Cabrera’s fabric sculptures about the US-Mexico borderlands. The section brings the work of scholars from different regions into dialogue. Beatriz Elena Arias López, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, and Berena Torres Marín reflect on textile initiatives undertaken by peace signatories of the former guerrilla group FARC. Mathilda Shepard analyzes the work of the Tejedoras de Mampuján, asking what it means to speak of justice, reparations, and reconciliation in the wake of the plantation. Danielle House reflects on Mexican embroidery. She considers violence in Mexico and the way the victims it consumes have been framed as “ungrievable.” Mónica Salazar discusses symbolic resistance in participatory needlework projects about the US-Mexico border. Dillon writes about Chilean arpilleras and Colombian testimonial textiles. She draws parallels among the different artistic practices discussed in the collected essays, tracing the emergence of a supranational artistic movement that generates meaning through a multiplicity of practices. The Dialogues demonstrate the new signifying processes that these needlework groups use, as well as the way they articulate meanings that extend beyond the stitches and semiotics of their clothwork.