 | Eda and her daughter practice the intricate, expressive
gestures of Peru's Marinera Dance. | Eda Arroyo became a mother at 24 years old, and one of the most important things she wanted to do for her children was to show up. It was something her own parents were unable to do for her.
Born in Trujillo in Northern Peru in 1963, Eda remembers her early years like a fairy tale. Her whole family crowded into a house filled with love, music, games, joy. Then, it all changed. The country’s economy collapsed. Her parents began to fight. Her father abandoned the family. Then, one day, she watched her mother pick up her suitcase, walk out the door, and never return. “My eyes filled with tears,” she says. “I was nine years old.”
But motherhood takes all forms, and a nearby family took Eda in, welcomed her into their home and their warm embrace. “They made me feel like one of them.”
It’s clear from the minute you meet Eda that she is a woman of incredible strength and fortitude. She now has three daughters, whom she has raised without anyone’s help. “They came into my life to elicit the best of me,” she says. And although she struggled financially, Eda was determined to give them everything. “Giving up was never an option.”
She dedicated herself to educating her children — she would work while they attended school, then at night, she attended school herself. “Against all odds, I received my diploma in jewelry arts in three years, despite the circumstances.”
It was when she discovered gold and silver filigree that she felt something truly shift within her. Her career as a jewelry artisan gained new momentum. It just so happened to coincide with the return of dance to her life, particularly the Marinera.
"When I was just a girl, I'd dance with my mother to the music on the radio. Often when she had to go out for something, she'd leave me with housework to do but I'd take advantage of the opportunity. I'd turn on the radio in the living room and dance barefoot, letting the melodies of my small town carry me to my own imaginary world — a world of song and dance where I was the star.”
Her youngest daughter, Sheila, has inherited Eda’s passion for dance, and studies at the Institute of Folkloric Dance of Peru. "When I see her dance, it's like returning to my childhood in the living room of that small house where I danced to the rhythms on the radio.”
Today, Eda dreams that her work will reach across borders. She infuses her jewelry with energy, passion and love. Her hope is that customers around the world feel a touch of that incredible history through her work. | | | | | | | |
