13 “In the end, it is a primal idea that landscape is nothing more than an extension of weaving, that it is only a mantle covering the earth.” 4 In primary school, Amaral excelled at mathematics and drawing, prompting her to pursue a degree in architectural drafting from the Colegio Mayor de Cundinamarca in Bogotá in 1952. She attended school during the period commonly known as La Violencia (The Violence)—a twenty-year period from 1945 to 1965 of horrific brutality and crime that began as a conflict between competing political factions but evolved to include numerous atrocities committed across the country. 5 The violence facing her immediate community, among many other factors, led Amaral to look outside of the country to continue her studies. With encouragement from her architecture colleagues, Amaral applied for entry into Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and was accepted as an “assistant student” for a one-year fabric design and weaving program—one of the few areas that accepted students not seeking a degree. 6 At Cranbrook Academy of Art, Amaral studied under renowned textile designer Marianne Strengell (fig. 1) and was taught a pedagogical philosophy that conceived textiles Figure 1 Marianne Strengell in her weaving studio at Cranbrook Academy of Art, September 1949.