Mexico: Embroidering for Peace

By: Andrea Arzaba

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico’s Drug War.

Threads, needles and fabrics have become warriors for peace in Mexico. In cities like Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City, men and women of all ages have decided to speak out and share their thoughts and experiences on violence by participating in a collective relief effort through embroidery.

In her blog Yo también quiero opinar [es], Liliana Sánchez says she discovered the project while walking in the Coyoacan area, a bohemian and artistic neighborhood in Mexico City:

This time, a project caught my eye when walking through Coyoacan. Some people had embroidered handkerchiefs, and although at first I thought they were typical crafts for grandmothers, I realized what they were saying  through embroidery. “Embroidering for peace. A handkerchief per victim” is the motto of the group “Red Fountains”, who  propose embroidering handkerchiefs with the names or descriptions of each of the fifty million dead in the war against drugs.

Photo by Carlos Ortega, used with permission.  Click image to see more photos.

She also explains the project’s main objective:

The project aims, in their own words, “to embroider hope and memory.” When they get a considerable number of embroidered handkerchiefs, they will be display them in public squares all over the country.

In the same post, Liliana writes about how therapeutic this activity becomes [es] for people who participate in the project:

Cultural manifestations (or not) where people meet face to face with others who carry the same discomfort, the same uncertainty. Shouting in unison, laughing or mourning, without shame and without restraint because the person next to them is capable of understanding, it becomes a treatment that is very necessary.

In another blog, + Allá de la Marcha [es], Martín Javier Oviedo Hernández narrates an episode that took place during the the activities of the ‘Lucha por Amor, Verdad y Justicia’ (Fight for Love, Truth and Justice) collective, in the northern city of Monterrey:

On a warm day during May, a group of women knitting, sitting, talking, draw the attention of onlookers who come closer: three young men from Barcelona, Aram, Gabriel and William.

- What are you doing? – they ask the women. 

- We are embroidering  for peace-, the women answer in chorus.

- So is it true that you are at war? … -

- Not only at war, they have taken our children … -

They are mothers, sisters and relatives of missing people, who come together in the collective LUPA (Fight for Love, Truth and Justice, Nuevo León), and they meet every Thursday at 10 am, at the kiosk Lucila Sabella, at the Macroplaza in Monterrey.

Martín finishes his post documenting dialogues [es] between the women who were embroidering in Monterrey’s main square. Their conversations cover everything from invitations to participate in the project to complaints about the current situation of violence in the city:

The blog Red por la Paz en México [es] describes the same embroidering for peace movement in Guadalajara:

In Guadalajara there is a group that is dedicated to Embroidering for Peace. On Facebook there are many pictures of people embroidering: grannies with glasses, girls with their dads, couples. There’s even a lady in a wheelchair. Some are embroidering standing, others half-lying on the grass, others sitting on a bench. They embroider in a park on Sundays. They take their white handkerchief there, and in red thread, they stitch the name of a victim of violence.

The movement has also expanded to various cities around the world, like Tokyo, Japan.

This post is part of our special coverage Mexico’s Drug War.