Embroiderers Strengthen Community Culture

The Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen [Museum of the Word and Image, MUPI] provided women embroiderers from Las Vueltas, Chalatenango, with equipment for producing artistic textiles as part of a project supported by the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo [Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, AECID] and the Surviving Memory project. The collective is creating embroidered works related to the region’s collective memory and ancestral culture.

The equipment was presented by Carlos Henríquez Consalvi, director of MUPI, and Teresa Cruz, a cultural promoter, as part of a process aimed at strengthening the women’s economic autonomy while promoting their cultural rights and recognizing the dignity and importance of their historical role within the community.

Through weekly workshops and community fairs, the collective produces artistic works that portray their personal stories and preserve local myths and legends, traditional games, and ancient rock carvings found in the region. Students from the Las Vueltas Educational Centre have also participated in the process, creating drawings and embroideries based on these themes. These activities reinforce their community identity and encourage younger generations to continue promoting historical memory.

The process contributes to the recognition of the right to a life free from violence and promotes initiatives that preserve and share individual and collective memory, reaffirming the women’s transformative role within their communities.

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, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.