Latin Quilts

I was thinking today about quilting histories and the ties they provide to your family and culture. Further, I was looking at quilting books online, and dreaming. I have quite an impressive Amazon wish list. When it struck me, that the quilt subculture of Latin America, and specifically that of Latinos in the the US is not addressed. I think it would be extremely interesting to examine quilting motifs, color palates, patterns and themes within these quilts. More so, it would be fascinating to chart the interplay between the differing Hispanic/Latin cultures when illuminating these quilt cultures. I would love to really examine what is being said about each culture and history.

I guess it just really struck me as I was thinking about my family and quilting. Like, I shared I learned how to quilt from my mother in girl scouts, but there was not reinforcement of this quilting. Resulting in me being a periodic quilter until college. I was comparing, in my thoughts, my quilting experience with that of a close friend of mine, H. H is a serious quilter who grew up quilting with her mother, and grandmother. They are extremely involved in guild and local quilting groups through their church. I was just thinking about how that history has to translate to quilting choices in color, pattern, theme or quilting motifs.

It got me thinking about what was available for me to reflect my family and history in my quilting. As I know that my mother's family quilted as she shared stories about her Grandmother quilting and has one of her quilts. I also have some of my Grandma's quilting books and design sheets from when she quilted on my dad's. My dad comes from prairie farm stock, so you know they quilted. While, my mom's family quilted, my mother was sent away to school in the city when she was quite young (her family lived in the interior - extremely rural) so she never quite gained that sense of quilt culture and history through osmosis while making quilts.

I guess it really is that I am craving that sense of connection with my background and history that is resulting in these questions. I would like to see some of the history of Latin American quilting and where it stands today. I think it would be extremely interesting to see what is happening in the more urban environments that Latinos are living in today, how they affect the quilting to see if we can see the influences of urban architecture, life, and especially graffiti would be fascinating. I really would love to see what some graffiti artists could do when quilting.

Oh well, these are just my thoughts and well I think it would be cool to see.