Chafil Cheucarama M. is a Wounaan artist and illustrator from

Darién Province Darién (, ; ) is a Provinces of Panama, province in Panama whose capital city is La Palma, Darién, La Palma. With an area of , it is located at the eastern end of the country and bordered to the north by the province of Panamá Province, Panam ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

Early life

As a child Cheucarama watched his father carved intricate zoomorphic sculptures. He began carving

tagua ''Phytelephas'' is a genus containing six known species of dioecious palms (family Arecaceae), occurring from southern Panama along the Andes to Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, northwestern Brazil, and Peru. They are commonly known as ivory palms, ...

seeds, known as "vegetable ivory", as well. The linguist Ron Binder noticed Cheucarama's artistic skills in the village of Aruza in the early 1970s. The teenager carved representational toys from

balsa wood ''Ochroma pyramidale'', commonly known as balsa, is a large, fast-growing tree native to the Americas. It is the sole member of the genus ''Ochroma'', and is classified in the subfamily Bombacoideae of the mallow family Malvaceae. The tree is f ...

.Callaghan 28 Binder invited Cheucarama to move to Alcalde Díaz, where the young man was able to take art classes. Later he earned a degree in

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

."La Riqueza Indígena de Cheucarama."
''Casamérica.'' Retrieved 28 April 2013.

Art career

The historian

Reina Torres de Araúz Reina Cristina Torres de Araúz ( Torres Pérez; 30 October 1932 – 26 February 1982) was a prominent Panamanian anthropologist, ethnographer and professor. She is considered to be a "tireless defender" of Panamanian heritage ethnography. Biog ...

hired Cheucarama to illustrate several of his books. He was selected as "Panama's best illustrator." Representing

the Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.'' Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sin ...

, he won first place in an OAS Children's Book Fair in Italy in 1994. Besides drawing with pen and ink, Cheucarama also paints in acrylics. He is regarded as one of the most prominent artists in the Wounaan community. In 1998, Cheucarama was part of the show, "Tributo a la Patria" (Tribute to the Homeland). In 2010, he exhibited at the Galería Manuel E. Amador in the

University of Panama The University of Panama () is a public university in Panama City, Panama. It was founded on October 7, 1935. Initially, it had 175 students learning education, commerce, natural sciences, pharmacy, pre-engineering or law. , it had 74,059 student ...

, as part of the group exhibit, "Expo Docente."

Personal

The artist's son, Lanky Cheucarama is a notable tagua seed carver and a zookeeper at the Summit Zoo for the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project.Lindsay
"The story of the deer and the frog."
''Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project.'' 9 Feb 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2013. Chafil Cheucarama's cousin, Selerino Cheucarama is a respected sculptor working in

cocobolo Cocobolo is a tropical hardwood of Central American trees belonging to the genus ''Dalbergia''. Only the heartwood of cocobolo is used; it is usually orange or reddish-brown, often with darker irregular traces weaving through the wood. The heartw ...

wood and tagua seeds.

Published work

* Peña, Toño and Chafil Cheucarama M. ''Jãga wounaanau hãwãrr t'õojẽ: La pesca entre los wounaan.'' Panama. 1979. * Chindío Peña Ismare and Chafil Cheucarama M. ''Estudiante majepienau nem hĩgkʼatarr: cuentos y experiencias de algunos estudiantes de Majé en woun meu.'' Panama: Instituto Nacional de Cultura, 1980. * Ton̋o Pen̋a and Chafil M. Cheucarama. ''La Cestería, Un Trabajo Femenino (The Basketry of the Waunana Women).'' Panama: Instituto Nacional de Cultura, 1980. * Chafil Cheucarama M.; Ronald Binder; Phillip Lee Harms; Chindio Pena Ismare. ''Vocabulario Ilustrado: Wounmeu, Espanol, Epena Pedee.'' Bogotá: Asociacion Instituto Linguistico de Verano, 1995. . * Gilma A Guerra de López; Chafil Cheucarama M. ''El árbol y el ruiseñor y otros cuentos.'' Panamá : Instituto Nacional de Cultura, 1995. Juvenile fiction.

References

Books

* Callaghan, Margo M. ''Darién Rainforest Basketry.'' 4th Ed. Sun Lakes, AZ: HPL Enterprises, 2009. .

External links

"Humble Tree Delivers a Dark Surprise,"
with illustrations by Chafil Cheucarama {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheucarama, Cheucarama Embera-Wounaan Living people Panamanian artists Panamanian people of Indigenous peoples descent Latin American artists of indigenous descent Year of birth missing (living people) People from Darién Province