International Handicrafts Fair

From December 3rd to December 8th of the current year, the International Handicrafts Fair was held at La Rural Exhibition Center. My wife and I went there. I went with the disappointment of the last visit to a Fair at the very same place, which I already commented on.

We arrived 5 minutes before opening time, and a long line had already formed. That was the only bad thing about the Fair, truly quite uncomfortable and disorganized: two lines, one for the ticket office and one for entry. People were mixing together, separating to save places, and there was a lack of organization for entering. They could have opened ticket sales 15 minutes earlier and avoided all that discomfort. Once the opening time arrived, they delayed letting people in by about 10 minutes. These 10 minutes of delay might seem like little, but they felt like a lot to those who were waiting, and the discomfort among the crowd was already palpable.

Once they enabled entry, everything changed. The entry was fast, and there were a lot of people waiting to get in. The vast majority of people headed to one side to do the tour from side to side; we entered directly through the center, where the textile sector was located. It was quite calm and easy to walk through. There was a great variety of textiles: knitting, crochet (I didn't see any cross-stitch), and then a lady with a novel craft called Bobbin Lace, which was unknown to me. The lady told us that this craft came from the area that currently would be the Benelux (more precisely Belgium and Holland), various types of embroidery, table runners, assorted clothing, ornaments, amigurumis, woven and embroidered towels, and loom-woven items, among many other things.

Not only were textiles sold, but some booths also sold the tools to make them, ranging from small to medium looms, needles—mostly made of wood—and also some machines related to weaving, each with a different function. For example, some of these machines can be seen in the photographs; the man selling them, who I imagine was also the one who manufactured them, gave a demonstration if anyone was interested. And so a lady showed interest in learning how one worked that does not appear in the photograph. This man prepared the machine, invited the person to sit next to him to give her the explanation, and the rest of us watched from outside the booth. He explained how to connect everything and began the work; using a foot pedal and the help of his hands, he demonstrated its use.

The Fair was divided into different sections: just as there was the textile sector, there were also sectors for papier-mâché, toys, leather, jewelry, metal, wood, ceramics, wicker, dolls, and many more. Then there was a sector where provincial delegations were grouped, and another sector featuring edible artisanal products.

Each booth at the Fair was decorated however the artisan saw fit, so you could see everything: from almost bare booths, others with Argentine flags, others covered with fabrics, others totally covered by the objects for sale, and some artisans crossing threads from side to side so they could hang more products. In the photograph, you can see one that I thought was original: the artisan made paper crafts that cannot quite be seen since they were on the table, and she wallpapered her entire booth with pages from a phone directory. And then on one of her sides, she made a drawing with black ink that contrasted with the white of the phone book pages.

There was a whole sector for the provincial delegations, but unfortunately, they were not all there; their absences were noticeable. The ones that were present were Mendoza, Catamarca, Córdoba, Jujuy, Río Negro, Salta, Santiago del Estero, and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.

The few provinces that were represented had the best booths, much larger than the regular booths, much better set up, and with many more colors.

And truly, all of them stood out. In the photograph, two loom weavers can be seen at the Catamarca province booth. As they mentioned, a piece of work like the one they are doing could take them anywhere from weeks to months. For example, the Catamarca province booth had many handmade rugs.

There were also booths representing other countries, such as Peru, which offered paintings with Inca motifs; Mexico, which offered a variety of crafts and even music; Bolivia, which offered musical instruments; and other countries from other continents.

Many of the booths displayed a certificate indicating "first place in category...", apparently from contests among the artisans themselves within the genre to which their type of craft belonged. I do not know when those contests took place. One of them can be seen in the photograph.

In the same photograph, you can see crafts from the Argentine Northwest, seemingly from the Jujuy area. Some of these crafts represent customs unique to the locals there; if one does not receive an explanation, one might not understand them. For example, in one of them, a woman is breastfeeding a child and holding him backward under her arm; this alludes to a practice believed to cure an excess milk condition in the breasts. In another craft, one woman is cutting a braid of hair from another woman who is seated and has bills glued all over her body. What does that mean? It is about the cutting of "cimbas." "Cimba" alludes to the Quechua-origin word simpa, which precisely means braid. When a child is born, their hair is allowed to grow until a certain moment when they decide to do the cimba-cutting ceremony. Those who wish to participate arrive and bring gifts, which can be money, to the person whose cimbas are going to be cut; in exchange, they take the cut braid of hair as a keepsake. And all of this is represented in the artisanal figures, along with many others.

To conclude, I must say that the Fair was very good; prices ranged from moderate to expensive, and there was a significant variety of products. I leave the final photo of a booth belonging to an artist who made colorful paintings entirely out of wood.