FINE-ART
CARVED GOURDS AND EMBROIDERIES

The Alfaro Nuñez family

gourd collection 2008-01

The carved gourd art we create contains different scenes of life in the Andes. In our work we try to let people know about the life of the countryside here. As an example, I will describe what is pictured on the gourd shown first in this collection.

In the part near the base, we see the potato harvest and the countryman using oxen to stir up the soil in order to more easily reach the potatoes. Above this, pachamanca is being prepared. Pachamanca, a dish typical of Huancayo, is a Quechua name which has been absorbed into Spanish. Its meaning is the "vessel / cooking pot of the earth." Pacha means earth and manca means vessel, or hand. It is constructed by making a small hollow in the ground, at the edge of which is an oven filled with stones. These stones are heated on a fire until they are very hot. They are then taken out, and in their place the oven is filled with potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yuccas. Some additional hot stones are added, then different types of meat, then more hot stones. After that, cornmeal mush is placed in the oven, followed finally by broad beans. All this is covered with herbs, blankets, and plastic sheeting, and finally tamped-down earth. After 45 minutes, the food is uncovered; it is well-cooked and delicious.

The next scene shows the process of weaving blankets. First the sheep are sheared, then the natural dyes are boiled into the wool. The wool is then transformed into weaving thread using a "puchka," the Quechua word for a drop spindle, and then woven into the final blanket or poncho.

The following scene, we see the barley harvest. The countryman and his family go out early in the morning with their animals to cut the barley. It is cut before sunrise (the expression used in Spanish is "before the sun gives people a greeting") because too much sun degrades the ears of grain. At home, the barley is spread on blankets, and at night the people and their animals walk on it, so that the barley seeds are pressed into the blankets. Afterwards, with the help of the wind, this technique allows the collection of cleaned barley grains.

The next scene shows the preparation of firewood. In the countryside one cooks on an open fire, so trees are cut with a hatchet and turned into smaller pieces for immediate use for cooking. They are carried home on the back of a burro. Burros are used for transporting all kinds of cargo.

At the top, or head, of this gourd has been carved the clothing worn by women of the Andes: a skirt, sash, mantle, sweater, and so forth; on the other side of the gourd is Andean men's clothing: trousers, sandals, sombrero, poncho, knitted hat, and so on. Carved in the rest of this section are tools used for work in the country.