It seems impossible to imagine escaping the Holocaust to then lose your loved one in the Argentinian Dirty War—yet this is what happened to not just one but two women who are the subjects of artist Sandra Mayo’s show, “Printed and Stitched in Time: Stories of Undaunted Women.”

This show represents the array of emotions and techniques embedded in Mayo’s work that she brings to the 2024-2025 CJP x JArts/Vilna Shul Community Creative Fellowship.  

Mayo’s use of genograms, pictures representing family relations, most often used by sociologists, is not fully what you expect to encounter in an art gallery, and they are incredibly effective. 

Mayo’s show was up at The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture, in late March, and reactions to the show were so powerful that I wanted to take a moment to share a few reflections from Mayo on this experience.  

“’The show is really beautiful, so I went up to read more—and then, wow, I realized how heavy it is.’ That was a comment from a Panamanian visitor that stayed with me. It means the visual language did its work—the softness of the materials, the textures and stitching made space for people to approach difficult content gently. If someone is first drawn in by beauty and then stays to sit with the weight of the story, I feel the art has done what it needed to do. That tension—between beauty and pain—is where real engagement begins. 

“As an artist and educator, this scenario was a dream come true! I couldn’t ask for more given  that I had never met Jewish Panamanians before. I was struck by how thoughtful and tuned in they were. They were deeply familiar with Jewish history and have been very active in their community back home. At one point, a visitor read Sara Rus’s quote out loud—’I’ve lost so much but I have so much’—then paused, looked up, and said, ‘I get it.’

“He got the whole message of the show in that one moment. Their emotional intelligence, curiosity, and deep resonance with the work reminded me how this kind of art can transcend geography and generations. The fact that we spoke entirely in Spanish—our shared native language—made the interaction feel even more intimate and meaningful. I also want to stress how important it was for the exhibition to be  bilingual, in Spanish and English. That decision created space for these kinds of moments to happen. It made me feel even more aligned with The Vilna Shul’s mission, and deeply connected to the broader immigrant community it serves. I felt seen, understood—and at home. 

“One moment gave me chills. Raquel and Alberto Limonik were visiting. He’s nearly 80 years old and was visibly moved by the exhibition. He paced quietly through the space, processing, and then finally turned to us and said he had met Ruth Paradeis once, at a wedding. He remembered her clearly.

“That moment, he felt like Ruth—and her family—stepped out from the walls of the gallery and joined us in the room. I watched another couple who was present as he shared this; their eyes widened and lit up. That moment—the connection, the witnessing, the memory coming alive again—that’s how we build history. That’s how we remember. That is Jewish memory in motion. It was a complete and holy moment.”

Follow Sandra Mayo on Instagram.

Sandra Mayo is part of the 2024-2025 CJP and JArts Community Creative Fellowship, a program dedicated to elevating local creators who transform Jewish life through storytelling, music and art. Now in its fifth year, the fellowship highlights diverse voices and traditions, expanding the contemporary Jewish canon with work that resonates deeply with Greater Boston’s communities. Learn more about this year’s cohort.

This post has been contributed by a third party. The opinions, facts and any media content are presented solely by the author, and JewishBoston assumes no responsibility for them. Want to add your voice to the conversation? Publish your own post here. MORE