The Pottery Makers (Ceramiqueros de Traslasierra)

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY of CORDOBA presents.

CERAMIQUEROS DE TRAS LA SIERRA

a film by RAYMUNDO GLEYZER

under an original idea of ANA MONTES de GONZALEZ.

ARTS SCHOOL Production.

Lighting chamber HUMBERTO RHOS.

Ay you. Of camera CBILET ALBIAC.

Production manager: SIMON BANHOS Assistant: JUANALICIA.

Locucion: RUDY CARRIE Music: ANTONIO DI CONSOLI.

We appreciate the collaboration of:

PROVINCIAL DIRECTORATE OF TOURISM INDUSTRIES KAISER ARGENTINA

- Your name, please? - Alcira Lúpez de Lúpez.

Alcira Lúpez de Lúpez belongs to a community of potters...

that in the vicinity of Mina Clavero...

keeps the pottery tradition alive in Cordoba.

The origins of this craft that has been transmitted...

from generation to generation, they go back to our indigenous past,

although it suffered the impact of the Hispanic conquest.

Indigenous characters remained well marked

in the manufacturing technique used by the old pots.

From whom he learned and inherited the trade.

- Where did you learn the trade, Alcira? - Acb no more, with my mamb.

How did it start?

Look, so much was the lack that they did me so many things that...

I started doing them.

First, the pots of porridge...

after the calabashes and the brazier.

I did not have anywhere to put the shovel and I started doing it.

Ў I came out high like a bell!

Everything was improving.

The same one realizes how it can be.

Goats and turtles copies from somewhere?

No, no idea, no more!

- But here are turtles? - No, I never saw them!

ЎMen's head, no more!

I realized how the turtles are!

Who helps you at home with the ceramic?

My husband helps me and there are five guys there now.

Everyone has to help.

Are you enough to live, Alcira?

And, more or less, lady.

Now, with life so expensive, you know we're going there, no more.

For the reason of the carura, їviú?

ЎAll so expensive!

And the ceramic, you can say, is little that advances.

Where do they get the clay?

My husband brings it to me on horseback,

from a ravine two kilometers down.

By the way, he brings him closer to the road.

There we have a little table to sell to tourists who pass.

And do they go by often?

And, more or less, lady.

In summer more than in winter.

Tell me, Alcira, how do you choose the clay?

And, my husband, he knows.

It has to be black and smooth.

The strongest and the one that bursts.

When you burn it, it explodes.

And after?

And then you have to bring it to the house

and grind it to undo the big clods.

For the rough land, is not it?

From there it is put to soak in cbntaro...

in bucket, or with water, or in a saucepan.

Dissolves alone or helps her with her hand.

Then you have to strain it to get the sand and pebbles.

Where does he keep it, after he has cast it?

I have to keep it in jars and cover it well kneaded.

And the kneaded guardo, like kneaded to make the bread.

Amyric.

How long does it take to form a goat?

What, to form it? Half an hour before, a goat is formed.

On the other hand, the pots and jars take longer.

You have to add the tapes to the live... and that takes time.

Do you like others to learn your work?

And I like that they learn the same as me!

That they learn to earn their bread!

If they ask me how I do, I tell them what I do and everything.

Are they copied, between you?

No, the things my sister does I never did!

Because I did not pay attention...

If I look well, stick memory and do them.

- And after being formed? - You have to put them to orear.

They are left from one day to the next,

so that they are able to be fixed.

What are you fixing them with, Alcira?

With the tools.

I have a knife, a teaspoon,

a little fierrito to take out the mud and a little bone.