Tacking up a healthy distance: touch, cloth and memory of COVID-19 times

Abstract

The Initiative Embroidering for Peace and Memory: one victim, one handkerchief (IBPM) was created with the intention of rescuing the memory of the victims of the violence caused by the so-called “war on drugs” in Mexico. For nine years and with several hands, they have tried to embroider a handkerchief for each dead or missing person. What we present below are some reflections on what happens to the objects we produce –in this case, the handkerchiefs– and to the world they constitute in the midst of a health crisis that adds to the incessant debacle of violence in Mexico.