COVID-19 has brought many challenges in the areas of science and the economy; however, one of most immediate consequences has been the withdrawal of the population to the intimate space of their homes. This project aims to record, reflect and give visibility to female life stories through a book entitled “Diosas de lo Intimo – Oráculos de la Memoria Familiar” (Goddesses of the Intimate – Oracles of Family Memory), which compiles ten stories of diverse Chilean women. The importance of registering the private sphere today in the midst of a global pandemic that has forced us inside our home, is key to future historical accounts. The book can be found in every bookstore in Chile and in buscalibre.com for worldwide shipping.

 

Women have been the keepers of the intimate space and family memory since ancestral times; however, their work and relevance has been kept in the private spheres of history and left out of traditional accounts. The objective of this book is to shed light into narratives that are linked to the intimate space of the home and womanhood. Practices within the female world keep families/communities’ history alive through rituals, recipes, religion, photo albums and other practices that were unearthed through ethnographic interviews done for the purpose of this research.

 

In order to record the stories included in the book we carried out ethnographic interviews. This approach combines visual and sensory experiences to provide insight into the subjects’ life  stories beyond the “visible” and explain the “in depth” historical meaning. This material provided essential information  to create both written stories and illustrations presented in the book.

 

Interviewing, writing and illustrating female stories for this project has shown the different circumstances and experiences women endure. Accounts of migration, racism, sexism, poverty, motherhood and identity are not experienced equally among the main characters of the book. Each story, paired with its own visual illustration, helps the audience understand the value and uniqueness of each plot.