the family and embroidery
The Nuñez family have worked at embroidery for at least four generations.
According to Cristian Alfaro Núñez,
"This type of embroidery has been traditional in Peru for several centuries, since the time of the Spanish colonies.
"Knowing that in our family, this artwork has been produced at least since my grandparents' generation, I took the opportunity to ask about my great-grandfather, who died when I was four years old. He also embroidered. Since then, my grandmother and her siblings taught their children; thereby my mother and aunts know how to embroider. Today my mother teaches us as well. Some of my cousins are skilled in embroidery, and my mother's cousins, too.
"One difference with the older generations is that today, while my brothers and I know how to embroider and also to carve gourds, we spend less time on embroidery and more on the gourds. My mother and sister spend more time on the embroidery. This is only to speak of my immediate family, since my cousins and my mother constantly work on embroidery. Therefore our wider family produces both carved gourds and embroideries."
For a more detailed history of our family's embroidery work: In the first half of the 20th Century, Mr. Julian Hospina del Carmen was a weaver using the callhua, or Andean backstrap loom, making overcoats, ponchos, etc. He also worked at embroidery. He taught his children, Teodora, Victoria, Leoniza, and Eleuterio Hospina Marticorena to embroider.
In 1945, Victoria Hospina married Mr. Manual Marín, who also worked at embroidery, and this became the focus of the family's work. The skill was passed down to their daughter, Leoniza Hospina Marticorena, who taught her husband, Mr. Amador Nuñez Zamabria, and their children, Digna, Reyna, Ciro, Elena, Aydee, and Johnny Nuñez Hospina. Digna Nuñez Hospina also taught her husband, Mr. Jesus Alfaro Marticorena, and her children, Ivonne, Angel, Charles, Cristian, Edith, and Gabriela Alfaro Nuñez.
