A long and beautiful bus ride from Lima on
Saturday brought me up
nearly 11,000 feet to the town of Huancayo. I
was lucky enough to sit in
the front seat next to the bus driver and take
in the incredibly idyllic
countryside (but unlucky enough to have to
endure the same whiny
Huancayan cd blasting the entire way). The
terrain quickly changes from
the parched, sweltering climate of the coast
to the rainy and lush
landscape of the Andes. The straight line on
the google map shows the
distance to be only 120 miles but the road was
anything but straight and
the trip took 8 hours, passing through mining
town after mining town
(including the infamous La Oroya whose city is
the site of Doe Run’s poly-
metallic smelter. It has been named in the top
20 of most polluted cities
in the world. According to the
Blacksmith
Institute, 35,000 have been potentially
affected by the pollutants
from the mine including lead, copper, zinc,
and sulfur dioxide. 99% of
children living in and around La Oroya have
blood lead levels that exceed
acceptable limits).
Huancayo is the
capital of the Junin region
of Peru and comes from two Quechua words,
meaning “the place where
the stone is.” I have yet to learn where the
stone is (perhaps the
mountains surrounding the city or maybe there
are ruins here??) I have
noticed tons of artichokes and potatoes
growing in the fields surrounding
the city. I was daydreaming about eating a
delicious artichoke while here
but learned that all of the artichokes are
exported and, according to
someone I talked to, sent to China where they
are canned and then
dispersed
throughout the world (even
making it back to Peru – how efficient
globalization can be…) So instead I
will concentrate my food thoughts on eating as
much “papas a la
huancaina” as possible while here since after
all, this is the birthplace of
the dish. (papas a la huancaina is delicious
dish named after the town of
its origin and is found all over Peru and
consists of boiled potatoes with a
yellow sauce over.)
I supposed I should
get back to the real
focus of this blog (perhaps the lack of oxygen
is making me go off on
tangents). After spending Saturday evening
recovering from the change
in altitude, I visited two groups Sunday, both
of whom work with gourds.
The first was Llamcay Tuki which means
“beautiful work” in Quechua. The
group lives in a small village name Cochas
about a 15 minute bus ride
outside of the town of Huancayo and works with
gourds, an art that may
be unique to Peru but definitely not to the
town of Cochas. It seems that
nearly everyone in Cochas works with gourds so
it is a highly competitive
profession and prices are constantly being
driven down. Based on the
widespread profession, one might assume that
the gourds are grown in
region surrounding Huancayo but instead they
are grown on the coast
North of Lima in the Trujillo region.
Llamcay Tuki has suffered its fair
share of troubles since it’s
foundation a few years ago (having various
members come and go and
the former treasurer took it upon herself to
give herself loans), but two
members, Daniel and Antonio, have refused to
give up and continue to
fight for the group’s survival. There are
currently 5 male members in the
group ranging in age from 16 to 42 years old.
Many of the members
learned the skill from fathers or uncles. The
youngest member of the
group, William Moran de la Cruz left his
family and moved to Cochas
specifically for work and to learn the skill
of gourd making. He is a native
quechua speaker (although I wouldn’t have been
able to tell by his
Spanish) and still in school and uses the
money he makes with Llamcay
Tuki to pay for his schooling.
This
group does not want to give
up and they’ve been working at it a long time,
but it’s so hard to think of
new products for them. How many different
things can you make out of a
gourd? I brought down a jump rope as a sample
for them to possibly
use…a different artisan group that we work
with can make the rope and
then the 2 handles can be made from skinny
gourds. The group was very
excited about the idea as was the other gourd
group we told the idea
too…I just have this feeling that within a
year, the Peruvian tourist artisan
market is going to be saturated with jump
ropes - maybe I’m giving
myself too much credit here, but I feel like
when a new idea comes
along, every single gourd carver in Cochas
(which is a lot!!!) jumps on
the idea.
Today I visited Rawaqlla
Maqui (meaning “working”
or “talented hands”) who is a newer group who
have not yet developed a
product for export. They can knit, sew,
embroider, and even have a loom
to weave sweaters. I am looking for a new
group who can make
sweaters as the group that BOH worked with in
the past (Yana) has
reached a level of success and have
established their own clients that
they no longer need PJT or BOH. I believe that
Rawaqlla Maqui is capable
but sizing is so difficult for clothing. I
didn’t have time (or the space in my
too full suitcases) to bring down samples but
this group says that with the
correct measurements, they’ll be able to make
samples. So if anyone
who reads this has the specific measurements
for S, M, L or XL for male
or female sweaters, I’d greatly appreciate it
if you could
email
them to
me!!!