My Heart is Full // Paraguay

Paraguay Illustration by Ana Maria Sanchez

I took a special family trip for a couple of weeks to Paraguay and Brazil. I had not been back to Paraguay in about 8 years. I decided to take this trip with my parents since it had been 12 years since my father had gone to visit his family. Both of my parents were born and raised in Paraguay so it was a treat to see my extended family. I knew that it would be a special trip since he planned to collect information about his family to write the family history. I was able to meet relatives I had never met before and hear interesting stories about the family.
In our down time I was able to sneak out and go to downtown Asuncion and purchase some artisanal handcrafts. Here are some pictures from shopping at La Recova and downtown close to Plaza de los Heroes. There are outdoor street vendors on Palma St between Iturbi and 14 de Mayo streets. La Recova has several shops on the outside corridor as well as inside in the larger warehouse style building. The outside walkway has a series of large white arches, so it is a very recognizable building.

 

Photo by Julio Ruben Elizeche Flores

La Recova

Shopping here with my mother and aunt

Trying to decide what goodies to buy

Lots of nativity sets and clay roosters

Red cotton dress with encaje ju The encaje ju is originally from Spain, in guaraní it means “Fabric of Needles”. It consist of a textile embroidered with very thin threads, over a frame. There exists many different types of embroidery, each one with different motifs: flowers, stars, geometric shapes, etc.

Here is a short video of someone making the lace called Encaje ju.

Ao po'i shirt

Photo from AOSA

Here is a video in spanish showing you how they handloom and embroider the cotton.


I did not get a chance to also visit the town Luque in Paraguay to expand my collection of sterling silver artisan filigree jewelry. I did find these 2 incredible hand wrapped filigree rings though at La Recova.

Going back to Paraguay was like reawakening a part of me that had been dormant for many years. I enjoyed reconnecting with my family and roots. I will not let another 8 years pass before going down again. After all family is the most important thing in the world.

XOXO,
Ana Maria

Ñandutí a Labor of Love

A good friend of mine texted me a link to an article from Paraguay early this morning. The article's title translates to "Paraguay is on the Altars in the Vatican".

photo credit: Gentileza, IP Paraguay

This is exciting for 3 reasons. The first is that the lace altar cloth was made by Paraguayan women from the handmade needle woven lace called Ñandutí. Love this quote that Pope Francis had said in regards to the Paraguayan woman,

"In my opinion, the Paraguayan woman is the most heroic in the Americas,” he said. “After the war [The War of the Triple Alliance - 1864–1870 – in which nearly half-a-million Paraguayans died], out of every ten people , eight were women. And these women made the great decision to have children… To save the country , the language, the culture and the faith. I wish that one day the Nobel Prize Committee would give the Nobel prize to the Paraguayan woman . To have saved her culture, her country. It was heroic! I nominate her!"

Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/02/13/pope_francis_meets_with_argentinian_exiles/en1-772921
of the Vatican Radio website

Second is that it is from a design house in Paraguay called Cecilia Fadul Altieri that specializes in the lace. Her works are truly amazing. She designs wedding dresses to tablecloths made with this needle woven lace.

The third reason is that I studied how to make the lace years ago from a lady from Itagua for several months back in 1998 . So obviously I hold a certain fascination with the lace's history, technique, design and evolution.

About four years ago, I gave a presentation at the Institute of Hispanic Culture in Houston about nanduti and its significance in the culture of Paraguay.
 Quoting textile historian Margy Norrish's blog Unraveling Threads, "The Spanish brought their teneriffe lace and taught the locals. The teneriffe lace is a Spanish handcraft from the 17^th C for household use and was professionally produced in a 19^thC revival.
In its simplest form these needle-woven circular patterns are formed by foundation threads that radiate from the center like a wheel with additional darning threads woven in different patterns around the circle.  These circles or spider webs are then joined together. "

Teneriffe lace

In Paraguay the women took the technique of the Spanish and designed patterns inspired by nature. Below is a page taken from an incredible book about the lace. It had several pages of photographs of the different designs of the lace and their inspiration. For example the first one is inspired by jazmin.

from the book El Nanduti Trama Sutil Cautivante by Eliodora Ramos de Martinez and Maria Angela Fernandez de Navarro

 Making a piece out of Ñandutí is truly a labor of love. It is certainly a dying art form as many young women are preferring to get an education and have a career and not learn from their mothers an art form that has been passed down many generations. To receive a tablecloth made from Ñandutí is to receive  a little piece of those artisans' hearts. 

Here is a video of an artisan filmed making Ñandutí

 Monica and I in front of a framed Ñandutí tablecloth, Paraguay 1998

Cazador de Instantes has a great blog post about an artisan who makes Ñandutí which features some amazing photographs of her work.

  

Nanduti Paraguayan Lace

I am thankful that I was invited to speak on Saturday at the Institute of Hispanic Culture in Houston on Saturday May 15, 2010. I was invited to do a presentation about nanduti lace as I studied this particular lace in Paraguay for 4 months. I had a teacher who came into the capital twice a week from Itagua and taught me how to make this lace. The lace is a source of pride for Paraguayans and it can be in seen in various artworks, songs, and even furniture. I even incorporated the nanduti into my logo. I will be uploading my power point presentation this week online for those interested. I highly recommend reading the book "Encaje de Paraguay" by Annick Sanjurjo. This book is available in Spanish only at this time but is currently being translated. The book comes with an amazing DVD available in both English and Spanish. You can purchase the book directly from the author on www.nandutilace.com