{"id":5218,"date":"2009-05-15T15:57:32","date_gmt":"2009-05-15T22:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/?p=5218"},"modified":"2020-08-17T10:52:09","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T17:52:09","slug":"drinking-mate-is-a-tradition-in-uruguay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/drinking-mate-is-a-tradition-in-uruguay\/","title":{"rendered":"Drinking Mate is a Tradition in Uruguay"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"drinking<\/p>\n

Socializing With Your Mate Uruguayan Style<\/h2>\n

by Paola Fornari<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Let\u2019s sit on the zagu\u00e1n,\u2019 my friend Rosa says. The zagu\u00e1n is the space between her front door and the street. We squeeze out two plastic folding chairs and a table.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been invited to matear, Uruguayan style.<\/p>\n

Mate is a national social pastime here.<\/p>\n

The mate is a calabash: you fill it with a bitter dried leaf called yerba, add boiling water, and sip it through a bombilla \u2013 a silver straw. The whole set of mate, bombilla and yerba are also referred to as mate, and the verb, matear, means to sip it.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

There are rules: you carry your mate in your hand and flask under your arm, or put everything in a leather case called a matera, but you can\u2019t order it in a bar. It\u2019s something personal, which you pass around your friends. Groups of young people sit in parks, chatting, enjoying the sun and sipping away. In street markets, or even in business meetings, people clutch their calabashes. Kiosks sell hot water to refill flasks. During summer months, when hoards of Uruguayans hit the beaches, first aid centres are set up to deal with burns.<\/p>\n

\u2018Okay, Rosa, I want to get this right.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"pouring<\/a>Rosa pours cold water onto one side of the leaves, digs a hollow with her straw, and starts sipping.<\/p>\n

\u2018The leaves have to hinchar, to swell. You use cold water at first; otherwise the straw clogs up. I\u2019m inviting, so I sip till the temperature is right. It\u2019s rude if I give it to you luke-warm.\u2019<\/p>\n

She sucks, and when a gurgle indicates she has drained her brew, she fills it with boiling water, slurps again, checking the temperature, refills, and hands it to me. I sip. We chat. I learn that is impolite to hand the mate back before the last drop of water is finished. You need that slurpy noise.<\/p>\n

\"pouring<\/a>\u2018Yuk! You don\u2019t want to sip someone else\u2019s water!\u2019 Rosa says. I wonder about the hygiene of the operation. \u2018Most people share with anyone. But I\u2019m selective.\u2019<\/p>\n

I\u2019m honoured.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m the hostess, so I fill. And we chusmear. We gossip about passers- by.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Rosa, if gossiping is part of matear, I\u2019ll go for it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Ooh, see that woman? She\u2019s asquerosa.\u2019 Nauseating? I wonder why. Rosa explains, \u2018She moved into the area and rebuilt the house next door. Loads of money. Moans all the time: says my pipes are wrong, my bathroom is making damp seep into hers\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

A man walks by. I nod and say \u2018Buenas tardes.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018No, don\u2019t greet, just smile. Don\u2019t say anything unless you know the person.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018But I don\u2019t know anyone.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Okay, don\u2019t say anything unless I know them. You have to differentiate between those you know and those you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"An elderly man passes with a dog. \u2018Not all there\u2019.<\/p>\n

We pass the mate back and forth. Every few fills, Rosa shifts the straw around the wet leaves.<\/p>\n

\"sipping<\/a>\u2018How\u2019s Carmen?\u2019 Rosa asks. She met Carmen at my house recently.<\/p>\n

\u2018Ah, poor Carmen, she\u2019s the first of twelve siblings. When she was fifteen, and her youngest brothers, twins, were a few months old, her mother gave one of them away \u2013 can you imagine? She handed him over to a stranger, then left. With another man. Carmen didn\u2019t see her again till last week, at a funeral. But Carmen\u2019s kids refuse to call her grandma. Can you blame them?\u2019<\/p>\n

Is this me, talking about other people\u2019s affairs, and judging?<\/p>\n

Rosa pours the last drops from the flask, and sips the mate del estribo. The dregs.<\/p>\n

\u2018Great, Paola,\u201d she exclaims. \u201cYou\u2019ve managed to matear and chusmear, simultaneously. You\u2019re a real Uruguayan now.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMontevideo Highlights Tour<\/a><\/p>\n

If You Want to Know More:<\/h3>\n

Mate (drink) in Wikipedia<\/a>
\nWelcome Uruguay – about mate<\/a><\/p>\n

About the author:<\/em>
\nWriter, EFL teacher, teacher trainer, and translator, Paola Fornari was born in Tanzania, and has lived in a dozen countries over three continents. She has recently moved from Uruguay to Belgium. She describes herself as an \u2018expatriate sin patria\u2019. Wherever she goes she make it her business to learn the language, get to know the local people and customs, and discover the country\u2019s remotest corners. She became interested in writing in mid-2006, did a short Open University creative writing course and a Writers\u2019 bureau course, and began getting articles published in 2007.<\/p>\n

Photo Credits:<\/em>
\nAll photos by Paola Fornari.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Socializing With Your Mate Uruguayan Style by Paola Fornari \u2018Let\u2019s sit on the zagu\u00e1n,\u2019 my friend Rosa says. The zagu\u00e1n is the space between her front door and the street. We squeeze out two plastic folding chairs and a table. I\u2019ve been invited to matear, Uruguayan style. Mate is a national social pastime here. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[762,952],"class_list":{"0":"post-5218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-america-travel","8":"tag-uruguay-travel","9":"tag-yerba-mate","10":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelthruhistory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}