Creole artist and poet Nydia Taylor Auchter gives creative expression to everyday events in the life of her Afro descendent community of Bluefields, Nicaragua, using the arpillera as her artistic medium. The custom of borrowing and adaptation can be seen in many aspects of Afro descendent culture in Bluefields. Creole English speakers select vocabulary from the Spanish language and embroider it, making a uniquely Creole expression, much as the artist arranges her cloth in the making of an arpillera. For example, “pasear” is cut from the Spanish, sewn into the Creole lexicon and embroidered to render, “We go pasearing,” to say that we are going visiting in a leisurely way. Arpilleras always tell a story; in this case the story is about black people in this region….(at home doing their usual chores, children playing etc) The base of the “arpillera” is made of burlap, and small pieces of colorful cloth are cut and embroidered to make a scene of the tropical area of the region of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. Coconut trees in the back, houses built on posts, and people walking with umbrellas will tell the story.
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