Cara Negra

Santiago, Chile

Textile Art

Cara Negra creates rugs and throws woven according to a nearly extinct textile tradition of the dry coastal region of central Chile. Trinidad Montero, a designer from Santiago, Chile, is working to maintain this weaving tradition that is in peril of being lost. As so often happens with millenary traditions, in the town of La Estrella, Dona Adriana Vidal is the one culture bearer who is working to pass her knowledge to the next generation. And that next generation is Trinidad.

Working with Dona Adriana and young weavers from La Estrella, Trinidad is reviving the use of a modified four pedal Mapuche loom called a country loom, which is specific to the descendants of Spanish settlers in the 7th Region of Chile. The collective uses wool made in a factory in town from their local, black-faced Suffolk sheep, and uses dyes made of sustainable, local plants such as avocado, walnut, níspero, lichen, onion, maqui fruit, and many more.
Many of their rugs and bedding collection designs are inspired by the feather patterns of regional indigenous birds like the Traro, Queltehue, Chirigüe, Canquén, Carpinterito, Torcuata and Hüala. Our Heritage Cultural Threat Level classification for this tradition is Under Imminent Threat.

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