Mate burilado are

calabash Calabash (; ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvest ...

gourd Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly '' Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. Many gourds ha ...

fruit decorated by hand with a technique called burilado using the carving instrument called or burin. This Peruvian

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...

form is found in the

Mantaro Valley The Mantaro Valley, also known as Jauja Valley, is a fluvial inter-Andean valley of Junin region, east of Lima, the capital of Peru. The Mantaro River flows through the fertile valley which produces potatoes, maize, and vegetables among othe ...

, as well as in the

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

of Lambayeque and

Huanta Huanta is a town in Central Peru, capital of the province Huanta in the region Ayacucho. History In the era of the Spanish American wars of independence, Huanta remained loyal to the Spanish ...

. For more than 4,000 years, artisans have practiced the tradition of hand-carving dried gourds to document oral narratives. Commonly, the training process takes five years.

Notable mate burilado artists

Mate Burilado artists began to receive individual recognition in the later twentieth century, as the art form became identified as a key element of the Peruvian art world, rather than seen as an indigenous craft practice. Apolonia Dorregaray Veli (1914 - 2002) was one of the first Peruvian mate burilado artists to be officially recognised as an artist rather than an artisan. She was hailed as the "artista de mates del Valle de Mantaro" by

José María Arguedas José María Arguedas Altamirano (18 January 1911 – 2 December 1969) was a Peruvian novelist, poet, and anthropologist. Arguedas was an author of mestizo descent who was fluent in the Quechua language. That fluency was gained by Arguedas’ ...

, who included her work in the fairs he organised as Director of the Casa de la Cultura. Dorregaray learned the craft from her father, Toribio Dorregaray, a

muleteer An ''arriero'', muleteer, or more informally a muleskinner (; ;) is a person who transports goods using pack animals, especially mules. Distribution and function In Latin America, muleskinners transport coffee, maize, maize (corn), cork (mat ...

. He in turn had learned the traditional techniques of mate burilado from his father, Manuel Dorregaray who acquired the skills when in the highlands and the jungle areas of Peru and brought them back to his home area of Cochas. The family tradition of carving mate burilado was passed to Apolonia Dorregaray's son Sixto Seguil Dorregaray and to her granddaughter Kania. In 2017, Pedro Veli Alfaro of Huancayo was recognised as a leading artist in the field. He learnt the art of mate burilado from his parents and set up his own workshop and museum in Cochas Chico, the centre of the art form. He produces carved gourds with traditional motifs of historical and jungle themes. His family contine the traditions of burilado mate making. Irma Poma Canchumani (born 1969), is Peruvian mate burilado artist and environmental defender. Artista_del_Mate_Wilfredo_Veli

References

Peruvian art South American folk art Indigenous art of the Americas {{authority control