Embroidery Collective Gives Voice to Mexico's Victims of Gender-Based Violence Mayela Sanchez - GPI
go to original May 16, 2013

The collective Bordamos Feminicidios displays the handkerchiefs it embroiders with stories of feminicide victims at an April demonstration. (GPI/Mayela Sanchez)

MEXICO CITY - Edith López inserts her sewing needle into a white cloth in Mexico City, Mexico's capital. Stitch-by-stitch, she embroiders the story of Gloria, a woman whose husband doused her with flammable solvent, then set her on fire. He tried to burn her to death because she tried to separate from him.

She is embroidering Gloria’s story as part of Bordamos Feminicidios, a collective of mostly women who embroider the stories of women who were assaulted and slain because of their gender. The group’s name translates from Spanish to “We Embroider Feminicides.”

Although Gloria survived the assault, the group included her case as a way to raise awareness about gender-based killings. The embroiderers also connect with their subjects’ stories through the craft.

The first embroidery López did with the group included an extra link. A lawyer, she stitched the story of a case she had litigated involving three young women whose bodies had been found in a cotton field in Ciudad Juárez, a city in northern Mexico.

Feminicide in Mexico first caught national and international attention during the killings that occurred during the 1990s in Ciudad Juárez in the state of Chihuahua.

Read the rest at UPI.com

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