La Parte de Atrás de la Arpillera

The Back of the Arpillera
This collaborative audiovisual project entitled “La Parte de Atrás de la Arpillera” features a collection of interviews with Chilean textile workers whose experiences stitch together the country’s history of resistance.
The process of making this piece resembled that of making an audiovisual Arpillera. Through the collection of personal histories—interviews (in-person and online), phone recordings and personal footage—filmed or sent to us by makers in Lo Hermida, La Patagonia, Los Andes, Coquimbo, La Serena, Malmö, Chicago and Toronto, we wanted to make a piece that contained the resistance of our ancestors and peers.
The footage was initially gathered to be presented at the Textile Society of America’s Hidden Stories/Human Lives online on October 15, 16, and 17, 2020. By presenting embodied experiences of primary sources, we were trying to resist a colonial and ethnographic approach to research, move towards a culture of consent and combat the anonymity of Arpilleristas, whose names have been replaced by those of collectors and collections around the world.