Otília Cardeira

THE LINEN
WEAVER

Otília Cardeira was born in 1951 in the parish of Cachopo in the hills behind Tavira. In the 1960s there were about 70 weavers in this parish. This craft, like many others, has been gradually lost. In the late 80s the ‘Associação In Loco’ organised an adult education initiative aimed at recovering some traditional activities. Otília and nine other women took weaving lessons and created “A Lançadeira”, a company dedicated to this art. It currently runs “O Moinho”, a kiosk working towards promoting Cachopo. This includes a rural traditions visitor centre, while organising tourist entertainment programmes and activities. In addition to this, she is a weaver and parish mayoress. She is proud to have trained up a successor. Young Elsa, has learnt the art of weaving and now works full-time in this craft. Otília sees hope in his young woman, because, as she says, “there is no future without the past”. In the beating of her looms can be heard the weavers of yesteryear, who would meet up in the evening to spin flax, to make bags, saddlebags and quilts.

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