<
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/sep/23/its-the-first-time-ive-woven-in-27-years-peruvian-women-revive-arts-lost-to-trauma-of-forced-sterilisations>
"Ricardina Huaman Folopa carefully pinches and counts wool threads with her
fingers: 87 – the exact number of pairs of threads needed to weave a chumpi, a
belt traditionally made by women in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Here, in
the Indigenous community of Huayllacocha, south of Machu Picchu, she is part of
a quiet revolution taking place.
Folopa and eight other survivors of forced sterilisation are weaving again for
the first time in decades, as part of a workshop led by artist and
anthropologist Alejandra Ballón Gutiérrez. They are using the millennia-old
backstrap loom they abandoned after their operations. “Can you believe it? It’s
the first time I have woven in 27 years,” says Folopa. “It hurts my tummy, but
that is not what worries me. What if I’ve forgotten everything?” she adds in
Quechua, shifting to find a more comfortable position on the ground.
Using the loom, which is attached to the weaver’s waist, causes regular jolts
to the abdomen as the ja’ulla, a wooden rod, is forcefully pulled towards them.
After being forcibly sterilised, many women found it too painful. “I used to
weave with my mother, who would bring me wool to make coats in the winter. But
after the operation, the pain was unbearable,” says Eutropia Quilla Huaman, one
of the other women at the workshop. “Our tradition is disappearing. It’s not
just that the women stop weaving, they also forget the techniques, and that’s
the worst.”
In 1997, neither Folopa nor Huaman knew what an anaesthetic or a tubal ligation
was. Between 1996 and 2001, medical teams travelled across Peru, targeting the
country’s most vulnerable and poorest communities. The official purpose of the
coercive birth control policy led by former president Alberto Fujimori was to
fight poverty; it was originally funded by USAid and the UN. Rapid
denunciations by community leaders didn’t stop the government from pursuing the
policy, using quantified targets, according to Amnesty International.
In December 2023, Fujimori was released on health grounds from prison, where he
was serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity. He was never tried
for forced sterilisations, however. In August 2024, a court confirmed the
annulment of a case against Fujimori, dashing the hopes of survivors who had
waited years for a trial. On 11 September 2024, Fujimori died aged 86."
Via
Reasons to be Cheerful:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/what-were-reading-california-rat-poison-law-mountain-lions/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
