Explore Black History

ca. 2006-2008

In 2006, a group of women in Mampuján, Colombia formed a textile collective in the aftermath of a devastating paramilitary attack. The collective draws upon Afro-Caribbean storytelling and local textile art traditions, to create tapestries that document their history and the atrocities their community has suffered, past and present. The community Mampuján, one of 20 historical Palenques or maroon settlements formed by escapees in Colombia, has faced violence throughout its existence, from colonial extermination campaigns in the 16th and 17th centuries to the paramilitary attack. Sewing tapestries is one method women from this community have used to address and heal from trauma.
This tapestry, Hacienda Esclavista (Slave Estate), depicts enslaved laborers working in the fields and other areas of the estate. This tapestry captures the brutal realties of labor during enslavement, including forced labor and sexual violence. From the artist's statement:
[This tapestry shows] the harshness that our ancestors lived in the slave haciendas where they planted cotton and other crops in the Colombian Caribbean... We see the bodies of women in different conflict--The woman who gives birth to sons and daughters and are forcefully taken from them, or sees them, with sadness, inherit oppression or servitude. The woman who is forced to do work. The woman who is a victim of sexual abuse by the enslaver...
It is important to see it so we remember it... so that the painful events are not repeated. VIOLENCE WILL NEVER BE WELCOMED!
Memory is a right. — Juana Alicia Ruiz.
The Mampuján tapestries have been displayed in museums in Colombia, including a piece on permanent display at the National Museum of Bogota and in the Mampuján museum newly opened in 2023. In 2015, the weaving collective won the Premio Nacional de la Paz award, an important peace prize in Colombia for their community organization and projects around the sewing collective.

One (1) cotton quilt tapestry, Hacienda Eslavista (Slave Plantation), crafted by Mujeres Tejedoras de Mampuján (The Weavers of Mampuján), circa 2006 to 2008.
The tapestry is horizontally oriented, has a white cotton border, and is constructed of colorful pieces of cloth shaped and sewn together in a storytelling display. At the top of the tapestry is the title [HACIENDA ESCLAVISTA] featuring red cloth for each letter of “HACIENDA” and bright green cloth for each letter of “ESCLAVISTA”. Set against the backdrop of colorfully patterned mountains under a blue and white sky, the tapestry depicts several scenes of the violent forced labor of enslaved persons on a colonial hacienda.
At left, two individuals sit outside a small, orange-patterned hut with a dark roof, with cows in a field behind it. In front, a white figure in a blue-and-white striped shirt looms over a cotton field of four Black laborers wearing black and white striped garments, one of whom is violently constrained by a wooden yoke fit over the figure’s head and wrists. Moving to the right, a woman and a girl in blue patterned dresses pick cotton while the figure of a woman hangs from a tree it the background. A fabric of bright red berries forms the tree’s canopy. The central scene depicts a bright green field with yellow embroidered corn in front of two small huts and a tree with a pink lace canopy. A red, male figure in a red shirt and blue pants stands in the center of the cornfield. To the right are two white figures, one a man in glittery boots wielding a glittery weapon and the other a woman in a pink dress with white lace parasol. To the right, the black figure of a woman kneels at the base of a tree with delicate white, three-dimensional flowers. A second black figure hangs from the tree by their ankle. In the foreground are ducks around a small blue pond, which holds a bleeding corpse. Along the right side of the tapestry is a large house. In front of the house, a mule pulls a yellow and black patterned cart, with a male driver figure. In the background, a line of shackled black figures marches towards the house. The reverse of the tapestry is white cotton.

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Textiles and Quilts

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Juana Alicia Ruiz Hernandez, Mujeres Tejedoras de mampujan

National Museum of African American History and Culture

2024.2.4

tapestries

© Women Weavers of Mampujan
Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.

cotton and linen with batting and thread

H x W x D: 12 5/8 × 22 7/16 × 1/8 in. (32 × 57 × 0.3 cm)

Title • Hacienda Esclavista

nmaahc_2024.2.4

NMAAHC

HACIENDA ESCLAVISTA

National Museum of African American History and Culture

CC0

2010s • 2000s

Mujeres Tejedoras de Mampuján • Hernandez, Juana Alicia Ruiz

South America • Colombia • Mampuján • Montes de María • Caribbean • Bolívar • Latin America

African diaspora • Slavery • Women • Colonies • Communities • Violence • Labor unions • Spanish colonialism • Free communities of color

African Americans • Africans

Country • Colombia • Subregion • Caribbean • Region • Latin America • Continent • South America • City • Mampuján • County • Montes de María • State • Bolívar

Images

Limited Use