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In May 2003, June
Anderson and Dr. Jenny Michael visited the Guaymi Indians of southern Costa Rica. The Guaymi originated in
northern Panama, where the current population of Guaymi is around 100,000. Numbering about 2000 today, the
Costa Rican Guaymi migrated and settled in the Cota Brus area, with five villages situated along the banks of
the Limoncito River, near the town of San Vito (originally a settlement of Italian immigrants). Villages are
connected by a series of rope bridges across the river. The area is tropical and mountainous, and horses are
the most suitable means of transport for villagers. Typically, individual houses are not clustered but spread
out. Visiting a family can take hours of climbing steep slopes and hacking one's way through the jungle with a
machete.
The Guaymi are the only indigenous group
in Costa Rica that still maintains the traditional dress for women. Their textile arts include crotcheted twine
bags and fishing nets, paintings on bark cloth, beaded jewelry, and woven palm hats and baskets.
Researchers:
June Anderson and Jenny
Michael
Photographs: All photographs are
by June Anderson. |
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The Guaymi village of La Casona
is situated in a tropical valley along the banks of the Limoncito River.
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Entering the village of La Casona. |
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String
bags (chacaras), crocheted with agave fibers,
store household utensils.
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Elvira and crotcheted fishing net, made from agave fibers. |
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Carrying bags are suspended from a head band.
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Detail of crotchet technique.
The Guaymi use four plants to make cordage: agave leaves and bromeliad leaves are twisted into fine
twine for making bags and nets; the inner bark of the majagua tree (Hampea sp.) and the vine
bejuco negro (smilax kunthii) are fashioned into sturdier rope. |
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Local
agave is one of the materials processed into twine.
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Plain white and dyed agave
fiber, called cabuye (Furcraea spp), is used for making bags. |
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A bromeliad called pita
(Aechmea magdalenae) is also processed into cordage for traditional bags.
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Bags for sale in La Cascona.
Local plants provide natural dyes. |
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Yendry Umano Volverde sells
Guaymi bags in the craft store at Finca Cantaras, San Vito. Typical designs are geometric, and
many represent stylized animals. A common design is the "turtle shell."
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Grace Santos (left) with
members of her family wearing traditional dress. |
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An important design component
on women's dresses is the triangle which represents a volcano.
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Bark cloth, called
mastate, is made from the ficus tree of the same name (Brosimum utile). |
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The bark is pounded into a flat textile.
Bark cloth is no longer used for clothing. Today it is used decoratively to make painted pictures for sale.
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Hats are made from the sem palm
(Carludovica palmata). |
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School house in the village of Villa Palacio de Brusmalis.
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