Embroiderers from Las Vueltas participate in a historical memory workshop

In January 2025, the Mujeres Bordadoras Vueltenses [Embroidery Women of Las Vueltas] collective participated in historical memory workshops in Las Vueltas, Chalatenango. Teresa Cruz, an embroiderer and popular educator from the Museum of the Word and Image (MUPI), leads the group.

This workshop was coordinated by Western University (Canada) and by architects from KU Leuven University (Belgium), with the support of architect Evelia Macal,  and Amanda Grzyb, coordinator of the Surviving Memory initiative.

The process began with the identification of historical images from the armed conflict, followed by visits to the places where those images were taken in order to identify the changes that have occurred over time. Later, a team of architecture students produced drawings based on the stories evoked by the photographs.

Using these sketches as a foundation, the embroiderers will stitch their stories with colored threads, creating testimonial pieces that will eventually become part of a museum collection to preserve the community’s legacy.

The activity also had the voluntary support of Olvin J. Abrego Ayala, an intern at MUPI, who is spending one year in El Salvador through support from his university’s Olga Gruss Lewin Program and a Fulbright research grant. Ayala comes from a family originally from Honduras, was born in Chalatenango, and lives in the United States, where he completed his bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies at Dartmouth University.

The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University,  KU Leuven, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.