Emilie Heidemann
Wenit Montero and Maria Amalia Wood making mangú.
Wenit Montero, left, originally from the Dominican Republic, and artist Maria Amalia Wood make the traditional dish mangú.
The women are gathered around a table inside a meeting space at the Meadowridge public library, smiling, laughing and greeting one another in both Spanish and English and exchanging hugs. One attendee says she emigrated from the Dominican Republic, and another from Honduras. More are from other Latin countries. On pieces of paper cut into circle shapes, they draw their favorite meal. This is in anticipation of learning how to make a traditional Dominican Republic dish, mangú, or mashed green plantains often served with fried eggs, cheese and salami. Roughly 20 people have come out on this Saturday afternoon in January to help cook.
They are part of Unidas por Hilos (“United by Threads”), a community art project that is the brainchild of Madison-area artist Maria Amalia Wood. She came to the United States from Honduras and says she has built her career on her passion for amplifying the voices of Latina immigrants. Some of these women “crossed deserts” in search of a better life, she says. They are more than just a number. They are strong, valiant and resilient, Wood says.
“I enjoy the community,” member Rosibel Bermudez, who is originally from Nicaragua, tells Isthmus. The group has also given her an outlet to share her hopes and dreams, the trials and tribulations of her immigration journey, as well as cultural traditions. Bermudez says she’s been with the group since its genesis in 2022.
Unidas por Hilos has grown to include about a dozen regular participants but “new people come all the time.” The group meets monthly (its next meeting is Feb. 8 at the Meadowridge Library). Members generally help prepare a traditional Latin meal, share personal memories associated with the dish, and embroider the recipe on cloth from the tablecloths used during the meals.
Wood says the group project evolved from Wood’s art residency at Synergy Coworking in Madison in 2022. She wanted to form a community of Latina immigrant embroiderers, as Wood had done this type of work before.
“They have a story, and that story matters,” Wood says.
With the new crackdowns on immigration, Wood says “a lot of people are scared” and “more so with Trump.” But the women she works with have the courage to overcome obstacles.
The first project the group engaged in was creating embroidered self-portraits, titled Bordando Memorias.
“I asked Synergy if I could use part of the budget to always have food available for the women,” Wood says. “I purchased from local Latin American vendors. That allowed us to connect with one another. Food is so important to culture.”
That led to Unidas por Hilos participants wanting to exchange recipes from their respective countries, a practice that will culminate in an embroidered recipe book, likely in 2026.
Unidas por Hilos also recently made the decision to open itself up to everyone. “I like that more people from the United States are joining,” says Bermudez, adding that she enjoys the cross-cultural exchange, and that visitors show curiosity about her culture.
Finding a calling
“I was always interested in art,” Wood says. But “Honduras didn’t have any resources and we didn’t even have art classes in the schools.”
Wood moved with her family to Madison so her father could get his doctorate in sociology at the UW-Madison. Ten years old at the time, she took art class at her elementary school and “loved it.” It was then back and forth between Madison and Honduras for the remainder of Wood’s childhood. She took art and graphic design courses wherever she could take advantage of them, in both countries.
“I kind of felt like I was a third-culture kid,” Wood says. “I always identified with Honduras as being my home, but that concept of home has shifted. Home is [now] wherever my family is.”
Wood went on to receive her undergraduate degree in visual communications from Judson University in Elgin, Illinois, in 2006.
There she fell in love with abstract art and using color, shape and form to communicate her feelings. Her senior show was an emotional reflection on her mother’s tragic injury in a car accident a few years earlier, leaving her a quadriplegic.
Emilie Heidemann
Madelyn España making crafts.
Madelyn España, of Madison, making crafts before the meal.
That show led to Wood’s first job, working for a company that made beaded projects at a manufacturing facility in Nicaragua. Traveling back and forth between the country and where she lived in the U.S. at the time, Wood managed the work of the women employed at the company. That’s where she found her love for collaborative art projects.
In 2010, she received a grant from the Congress of Honduras and a Honduran nonprofit to co-lead a community fiber art project with 52 women indigenous to Lempira, Honduras. Wood co-lead workshops in natural dyeing, embroidery and production. For many of the Indigenous women, it was their first time receiving a job contract to produce embroidered flowers that would later be applied to a larger tapestry, representative of their Lenca tribe. The women were paid fair wages for their labor, Wood says, and the project was called Mujer Lenca. Wood moved back to Madison later that year.
“I remember vividly thinking that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” Wood says. In 2015 she received her textile science certificate from UW-Madison.
‘It’s a tool for social justice’
Wood continues to build her career as a full-time artist, community art project facilitator, and art teacher for a local Christian school.
She makes paper with abstract designs, dyes and paints furniture, and designs prints — some of the works shine a lens on the struggles faced by “Dreamers” or undocumented people who came to the U.S. as children, while others are informed by the waves of Latina immigrants.
A 2017 community art project was Soñe Una Milpa, which was meant to acknowledge the hidden experiences of Latina immigrants. Wood treated women to corn-based meals from their respective countries while interviewing them about their immigration journeys. Another project was Viajes Del Horizonte, in which children made paper by hand in socially-distanced spaces during the COVID pandemic in 2021. Wood later assembled the pieces into a 5-foot by 5-foot artwork.
“Art has the power to bring communities together,” Wood says. “It’s a tool for social justice.”
