Bard Graduate Center is a research institute for advanced, interdisciplinary study of diverse material worlds. We support the innovative scholarship of our faculty and students as well as resident fellows, guest curators and artists, and visiting speakers.

This object is a twentieth-century Argentinian mate gourd with a metal straw (bombilla in Spanish). The mate gourd, in conjunction with the bombilla has been the vessel used to drink yerba mate since its discovery. In addition to serving diverse functions, for example as family heirlooms, these utilitarian cups also have the distinct status of souvenir objects meant to be representative of Southern Cone (cultural and geographic region comprised of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay) identity to foreigners.

Yerba mate, or Ilex paraguariensis, is a plant native to Paraguay. The Indigenous Guaraní people discovered that the plant made a stimulating beverage sometime in the fifteenth century. 1When the Spanish invaded Paraguay in the sixteenth century, they quickly picked up the habit of drinking yerba mate, and as their presence in South America spread, so did mate. The growth of yerba and its use as a drink spread quickly to Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil among many others. The Guaraní had always drunk mate from gourds. The original bombilla was made from bamboo with vegetable fibers to filter out the leaves. The Spanish would later improve it by making it out of metal.2

Over hundreds of years of ubiquitous use in Southern Cone countries, a significant number of customs and practices have developed around the consumption of mate. For instance, mate gourds for the most part are without handles. There is lore that the few with handles were made by jealous wives so that their husbands have no opportunity to bump hands with the cebadora (the women who prepare mate).3 There are also unique practices associated with acquiring a new gourd that non-South Americans might not know about. The inside of mate gourds are slightly porous and the more they are used, the more they soak up yerba. Consequently, when a new gourd is acquired, it is filled with damp yerba of the highest quality and left alone for several days. The gourd becomes seasoned like old tobacco pipes do. Seasoned gourds have noticable difference on the flavor of the mate.4

Although many unique customs developed in Southern Cone countries around mate consumption, it was not restricted to those countries. At the turn of the seventeenth century, the Spanish started to market yerba mate to Europe around the same time as tea and coffee from the New World. Though mate never quite achieved the cultural permanence and dispersion that tea and coffee did, that did not stop the Spanish colonists and the later independent South American countries from exporting and marketing it as something exotic and representative of Southern Cone identity.5 Because of its status as a cultural signifier, yerba mate and the mate gourd have become popular souvenir items for anyone who visits the region. This specific gourd was in all likelihood designed as a souvenir item.

The part of the gourd that is visible is dark orange in color and has black etchings on it. The mouth of the gourd is covered with a silver metal rim decorated with etched floral patterns and inlaid gold leaves. The base of the gourd is covered with the same metal as the rim and also has etched floral patterns. 3 tripods are attached to the metal base. The particular design of this gourd is one that came later in the evolution of mate gourds. One of the first steps was to cover the mouth of the gourd with a metal rim as a preventative measure to ensure the gourd lasted for a long time. Later, the base was also covered in metal to protect it and allow it to sit more easily on the table. Some designers opted to add a tripod for stability.6 The bombilla is made of two parts. It has a slender metal tube, decorated with garlands, with a flattened tip for sipping. At the end of the tube is a detachable spoon or strainer.

The inlaid gold leaf decoration provides a clue as to the origin of this gourd. Inlaying gold leaves on the metal rims of gourds was a popular design in Patagonia, parts of modern day Argentina and Chile, in the early to mid 1900s. A stamp found on the bombilla further solidifies the origin of this gourd. The detachable strainer on the straw is stamped with the words “INDUSTRIA MAMBORETA ARGENTINA.” Industria Argentina essentially means “made in Argentina,” while “mamboreta” probably refers to the specific maker of the gourd. In 1923, Argentina enacted law number 11274, also known as “Identification of goods,” which required all products made in Argentina to bear the notation “industria Argentina.”7 It follows, then, that this gourd was produced sometime after 1923.

It is harder to pinpoint the latest date of production for this gourd because of the ubiquity of gourds in Argentina. The gourd itself has no hallmarks which probably means that it was made sometime before October 1959. In October 1959, Argentina enacted its own marketing system for precious metal objects which required objects containing silver or gold to also have hallmarks indicating the karatage. 8 Gourds of nearly identical design produced after 1959 have hallmarks stamped on them(See figure 1 and 2).9

Argentina in particular has embraced mate more than other South American countries. While George Gaylord Simpson, the prominent American paleontologist, was in Patagonia in 1930, he wrote that mate was the “center of social life—perhaps of life itself.”10 Bilana, a Native Patagonian and his companion on the excursion, remarked that he hadn’t “drunk any water” in years and that “mate supplies all his liquid needs.”11 Even today, that sentiment resonates. Mate consumption in Argentina is second only to water. There are small industrial communities that grow gourds solely for the purpose of making mate vessels. Towns have competitions and rivalries with each other over which produces the best yerba. Argentina has even declared mate its national drink and, as of 2015, celebrates a national mate day. Production of mate gourds and the intricate designs that go along with them have become a way for workers to channel “artesanias Argentinas”—the spirit of craft and creativity in Argentina.

Bibliography