3/19-3/21/10 Ayacucho!

3/19/10

After a VERY rough start (my 30 minute flight to Ayacucho was delayed 7 hours and I just had to hang out in the airport in Lima waiting for my flight). I finally arrived in Ayacucho. Unfortunately my late arrival ruined some of my plans and I was left scrambling to reorganize my meetings with the artisans and the translator. The artisans I am meeting were contacted through an exporter named Antonio Velasquez, a friend of Finas, the woman who has helped me meet artisans in Lima. The translator I found through the tourist office and I couldn’t get a hold of him all morning so I am a bit concerned that he will not show up! The plane FINALLY left around 1:00 and  I got to the Hotel Santa Rosa around 2:30 PM (as opposed to 8:30 AM) and after putting my stuff in my room I walked to the nearby Plaza de Armas and checked it out. I went to the tourist office located on the Plaza and luckily one of the employees spoke some English so he explained the museums and he suggested some places for me to visit. Luckily the Museo de Arte Popular was still open (and was conveniently located across the Plaza) so I ran over to check it out before it closed for the weekend. There was also a ferio (fair) in the Plaza where they were selling artisan goods and some food. This gave me the opportunity to check out some of the local handicrafts. At around 4 I returned from my walk and waited for my translator, Anderson, to show up. Unfortunately he never came and the first artisan, Julia, arrived at my hotel to show me her retablos. After struggling to communicate for a little while I told her that we had to go to the tourist office to find someone to speak English so we could have a more fruitful conversation!  So we went to the tourist office (my 3rd visit today) and talked to Ismeat, the nice employee who knows some English. He called Pauline, a Belgian woman who runs the Via Via Restaurant and Hotel across the Plaza. She did a nice job translating and she told me about a Brazilian-American girl who lives in Ayacucho and might be able to help me. This could turn out to be PERFECT! I set up a meeting with Julia to meet tomorrow at her workshop so I can see it. I thanked Pauline profusely before returning to the hotel to meet more artisans.

When I returned to the hotel another artisan named Silvester Ataucusi Flores was waiting for me. I. At this point I couldn’t go back to get a Translator…. So I just winged it and walked with him to the local Artisan Market as we spoke in broken Spanish. He showed me his stall in the market which had some nice retablos in it. We spoke for a little while and then he walked me back to the hotel. Silvester and I agreed to meet at 4 tomorrow and we parted ways. While I was with Silvester, Iara (pronounced Yara) called me (the Brazilian-American who works with workshops here) and we agreed to meet up. Perfect!! Around 8 PM I met with Jose and Richard of the Ramos Family Taller (workshop). At this point I was pretty exhausted (as I am sure you can all imagine) and the meeting didn’t last long. They brought some samples of their work  and it seems that they are from the same family but in two different workshops. I told them I would call them later in the evening to arrange a meeting for Sunday.

Iara and I finally met up around 9 PM. We got Chifa (Chinese food) and headed to her apartment to chat. Iara is excellent, very nice, and super helpful! She is here on a grant from Yale. Initially she worked with a non profit company that worked with development and helping the community of Ayacucho. This organization worked with some artisans that Iara still has contact with. The group was inefficient and Iara decided that it wasn’t worth it and left the company. Now she works with the artisans, most those working in with textiles, to help them establish themselves as international artists and get their work out there by helping design websites for them, selling their products on her own webstore, and helping take photos of their work so they can have good portfolios to show to clients. She is helping them for free to improve their presentation to the general public.  Her company is called Kachari and you should all check out her website! She also explains workshops and how the craft world functions around here. I think this is a very worthy cause and I am so happy that I have met her! She has agreed to go with me to the different artisans studios around Ayacucho… luckily this will benefit her as well! She has a list of all the artisans in Ayacucho which is pretty PERFECT as well. Tomorrow we will meet up and go to at least two retablo workshops! Wooo!

3/20/10

This morning I meet with Iara and her boyfriend Sergio at 10 AM. We started walking to the Julia’s workshop. This is the woman I met yesterday that Pauline helped me talk to. Her husband and head of the workshop is named Luis Huamani. On our way we dropped off Sergio. And also popped into several churches: Templo de la Compania de Jesus and Templo y Monasterio de Santa Teresa (which they were restoring). I wish I could have gotten more photos of the Santa Teresa because it was interesting to watch them restore it. We stopped into a museum called Museo Andres A. Caceres. It was an utter waste of 2 soles. Honestly I don’t think any of the museums here are worth much unfortunately (there are only like 3 after all) and I should just stick to workshops and churches. As we walked I realized that Ayacucho, while it is in the mountains, is NOT that cold AT ALL. The workshop was located up some very steep steps and we certainly got a workout. It was great walking with Iara, tt is amazing that I found someone my age who has a comparable experience to my own so we can really reflect on it with each other! We finally arrived at the workshop and Julia and Luis welcomed us warmly. They live in the Santa Ana Section of Ayacucho and have an excellent view of the city. There workshop is basically on the top of a hill and is a simple room with two work stations, a shelving unit covered in retablos, a display case holding some small sculptures, and a large counter with some pieces on it and a computer behind it. They were very nice and went through the whole retablo building process with us. Luis sculpted a figure for us and Julia painted. I was impressed with their skill and I got some great footage of them making the retablos. Read more about the workshop HERE.

(Information on the important churches of Ayacucho was taken from HERE)

After lunch we went to the Ferio in the plaza de armas to look around. Iara knows a lot of the textile artisans so she chatted with them while I perused. We then took a little rickshaw to Silvester’s studio. He has a large room with a table for painting and a table for sculpting. He explained a lot to us about his history and his style. He is a more creative rebalista (retablo artisan). Sometimes he makes retablos about the violence of the days of the Shining Path and he has received a lot of acclaim for these retablos. He also has developed a very unique was of decorating his retablo boxes: he incorporates a molded floral relief as opposed to painted flowers. I appreciated his style and philosophy so much that I ended up commissioning a retablo from him! He will build me a retablo of a retablo workshop! Excellent! Read more about Silvester’s workshop HERE.
After the Silvesters we went to the artisan market again and Iara showed me some retablos in there. None were as good as the ones from the workshops that we visited today!

3/21/10

Today Iara and I went to see the Ramos Family workshop. One of the members of the workshop attended a Fine Art Academy so there are a lot of different styles and types of art in the workshop. Here is where I learned about the divisions of commercial to fine art retablos and about several of the traditional Peruvian dances. You can read more about the workshops HERE. They have some really nice detailed textile work in their retablos. After the workshop we walked down to the tourist office to try to find one more retablo workshop but the address was wrong oh well! I can’t be too upset. I have seen a LOT of retablos here in Ayacucho!

In the afternoon I left Iara and headed to La Cathedral for their Sunday mass. However when I arrived the church was dark and there were not many people in there. An hour later the lights started coming on and people began pouring in. At 6:30 the mass started and the church was FULL. Midway through the mass Iara stopped by to say goodbye. She was absolutely perfect and I appreciate everything she has done for me! I hope that someday our paths with cross again! I returned to the church to finish the mass. It was quite an experience. Not as sensory as the Orthodox masses but certainly more intense than the Latin Catholic mass in England.

Tomorrow I return to Lima! My weekend in Ayacucho has been an amazing and fruitful experience I am so happy that I came!