Arte, Mujer y Memoria: Arpilleras from Chile
Aftermath
Pinochet governed through fear, imposing curfews and surveillance. Individuals were identified as “ideological enemies” for embracing left-wing ideology or belonging to a labor union. They were kidnapped, tortured, and sometimes executed. The relatives of these “disappeared” pled for their return but were met with silence.
Victor Jara's song En el río Mapocho (In the Mapocho River) was written in 1972, just a year prior to the coup. It references a river that famously divides the capital of Santiago, Chile in two. During the dictatorship, the bodies of the disappeared began appearing in the river.
Take a moment to listen to this song and reflect on those who went missing.
Is there someone you miss? Think of a fond memory you have of them and share it with someone you love, or write it down to remember later.
Pinochet captures “enemies of the regime” through surveillance and raids. Prisoners are "disappeared."
A common occurrence after the coup. The military government publishes a long list of banned books shortly after taking power.
Basic utilities, like water and electricity, are privatized, leading to price hikes and the suspension of services.
Nationalized in 1970, Chile’s main provider of electricity returns to private sector hands after the coup, becoming Metropolitan Chilectra.
Income inequality increases during the dictatorship. Some can purchase basic goods while others are forced to forage for food.
Advised by economists educated in the US called the “Chicago Boys,” Pinochet transforms Chile’s economy drastically, exporting its best goods. A pocket on the back of this arpillera holds a note that says: “The export is for those with money, we only get the bad fruit, the worst of the export.”
The bodies of dissidents murdered by the regime are dumped into the sea. They disappear permanently.
The dictatorship limits freedom of expression and the press. Journalists face harassment and surveillance. They must send their stories to a government bureau for approval.
In 1985, three members of a leftist Teachers Union are abducted, tortured and brutally murdered by the dictatorship for communist activities. They are known as the “slaughtered.”
In order to access expensive electricity, women siphon power by hooking cables to Chilectra power lines. Neighborhoods become the target of raids.
Women go to the jail or the morgue seeking information about missing loved ones.
The dinner table becomes the place to ensure that everyone in the family remains safe. A disappeared family member is denoted by a question mark on a chair.
“Where are They?” becomes the slogan and chant of those protesting for the disappeared like the women of Agrupación Taller de Arpilleras (Arpillera Workshop).
Under a starry sky, women dressed in black carry candles for their dead and disappeared loved ones.
So many men disappear that Chile’s national dance, La Cueca, is reinterpreted as a dance women dance alone.