Accion de mujeres sin rostro / Action of women without face

The Arpilleras (embroidered murals) were made by hand by Chilean women during the dictatorship. Today we, the people present here, take up the idea of these women again and take action to make the world aware that we exist, especially in Germany.

The idea of the Arpilleras was taken up again in connection with the cruel practice of deportation and thus human rights were respected. This is a form of protest that the situation does not allow us to act freely and that we have to hide our faces and live underground. However, we are united in the hope that this will soon change.
(Mujeres sin rostro).

Why we are here

Rosa: Our presence in this country is not a matter of chance, and we are certainly not here because we are particularly adventurous. Nor are we here because the climate is particularly enviable, let alone because the German people as a whole are so incomparably nice. We are here because we bear the consequences of an uncompromising economic policy imposed on our countries for many years by organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The situation is so serious that it has slowed down the normal development of our society’s educational facilities, health care, provision for housing, etc., for an indefinite period. Every day, Latin America and the so-called “Third World” in general are confronted by this terrible, externally imposed reality. Moreover, globalisation, a phenomenon that is becoming more and more widespread, dominates and subordinates us according to its own standards, forcing its rules on us. In the face of such conditions, in the face of a situation not of our own making, why are there always baseless comments about migration focusing on the question of why we are here – or why we live in other economically powerful countries?
We think that it is completely superfluous to constantly ask why we have come here. We migrants, too, ask ourselves what right transnational economic organisations and industrial countries have to exercise such boundless control over our countries – a control that is so far reaching that it drives us into extreme poverty. It is apparent to anyone that three-quarters of the world’s wealth benefits only a quarter of the world’s population – and Germany, of course, belongs to this quarter. The conditions under which we migrants live are very difficult. We live in this country with absolutely no access to the most basic social facilities, such as health care, education, housing and employment. And as if this were not enough, there is also the daily tension derived from the fact that we can be arrested and deported at any time – that we are at the mercyof measures that are otherwise used to combat criminality. Why? What is our crime? In addition to all the shortcomings in meeting our basic needs and to the threat of being deported, there is also the basic campaign aimed at connecting us with criminality. This causes xenophobia, which is still clearly evident in a part of German society. We demand humane, just treatment that shows solidarity with our cause. We ask and look for the chance to work, as is our right – just as we have the right to continue our education and build up our lives here. Please consider this, dear readers: if Germany and other countries were to do just this much, they would still be paying only partial compensation for the daily, universal exploitation that takes place in our countries. Germany owes us that. It is our right to stay here! (Rosa, a migrant from Latin America)