Tapestries

<p>"Sometimes democracy must be bathed in blood."   General Augusto Pinochet</p><p> </p><p>A young Jesuit priest returns to Chile and a politically divided Catholic Church. After a violent military coup his bishop assigns Alejandro the task of guiding and protecting the women of a church-sponsored workshop.</p><p> </p><p>At first reluctant to waste his time with lower-class women Father Saavedra soon discovers their extraordinary courage and unexpected wisdom. He also comes to admire the beauty of the <em>arpilleras</em> or tapestries they create to protest the violence of General Pinochet's regime and its personal toll on their lives..</p><p> </p><p>The women of the Holy Rosary workshop brutally frank and disrespectful of all authority gradually form a family with Father Saavedra and the three upper-class women who assist them in surprising ways. For nearly seventeen years young or old they share their personal stories learn from each other and fight against a government determined to incarcerate or kill anyone who opposes or criticizes them and quash their own countrymen's struggle for human dignity.</p>