Marjorie Agosín
(return to In the Heart of Chile page)

In this clip, a poem by Marjorie is recited as performance artist Darinka Guevara
remembers those who were tortured by Pinochet's soldiers in Santiago's Villa Grimaldi.

Poet, author, translator, human rights activist, and Professor of Spanish,
Marjorie Agosín grew up in Chile and exiled to America with her parents in the
early 70's. As a jewish exile with familial ties to the haulocaust, Agosín's work
addresses human rights, ethnic and gender (female) identity, the disappeared,
family, and expression by and among the oppressed, among other topics.

In the Heart of Chile, Agosín relies on her many years of experience
working in Chile with the Mother's of the Detained and Disappeared (AFDD)
in the arpillera workshops of Santiago, and with the search for their (some still)
missing loved ones. These mothers have participated in outreach to the
international world on their plight for justice through various methods of artistic
and memorial protest, such as through dancing the Cueca Sola, a modified version
of Chile's national dance, the Cueca, or through the making and distribution of
political tapestries called arpilleras- smalll, hand-embroidered tapestries made
often with the clothes of the disappeared which usually depicted scenes of
disappearance, poverty, protest, torture, or injustice through state violence and
oppression. Through distribution and collaboration with international human rights
organizations, the tapestries touched the global community, and celebrities such as
Joan Baez, Sting, and Bono, among others, quickly took up methods to raise awareness.