Weber Shop Feature: Cuadros

This month the Weber Center Shop features the intricate and colorful textile artworks by women artisans in Lima, Peru.

Cuadros are stitched, embroidered, and appliquéd fabric pictures made in Pamplona Alta, a shantytown of Lima, Peru. This artform originated in Chile, where it began as an art of protest by poor and oppressed women during the Pinochet military government during the 1970s. Peruvian women use this artform to remember and celebrate the traditions of their Andean villages of origin and to document the challenges of contemporary Peru from the viewpoint of those on its margins. They capture events of daily life, various celebrations, and sometimes biblical scenes.

From 1989-2020, an exhibition of Cuadros from Pamplona Alta has been shown in over 40 venues, including the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and the Textile Museum in Toronto, Ontario.