Trenzando Saberes

Opening words

Foreword

Some municipalities recognise themselves in a river, a mountain or a date. Aratoca recognises itself in a fibre. For generations fique has been far more than a crop here: it was the trade that kept the household going, the thread that drew families together under the enramada, and the language in which this territory learned to name itself before the rest of Santander.

Those of us who grew up watching our mothers and grandmothers spin in the corridor, and our fathers come down from the hill with a bundle of fibre on their shoulder, know that this knowledge is written in no manual. It is learned by watching, corrected with a hand laid over yours, and passed on in a low voice while the work goes on. It is precisely that condition — oral, practical, everyday — that puts it at risk today.

This book comes from a simple conviction: what is not documented is forgotten, and what is forgotten stops producing. That is why the Municipal Government of Aratoca decided to gather into a single volume the long history of fique in our territory, the technical description of each phase of its transformation, and an honest reading of the challenges the sector faces. This is not a nostalgic tribute. It is a working tool.

The pages that follow take in the inheritance of the Guane people, the rise of agricultural packaging through the twentieth century, the crisis brought by synthetic fibres, and the reinvention our artisan families are carrying out today towards higher-value products. They also address something we can no longer postpone: making use of the bagazo, and caring for our water sources.

We hand this first edition to the artisans of Aratoca, to the young people seeking a dignified livelihood in this territory, to the teachers who would take it into the classroom, and to those who visit us and want to understand what lies behind a mochila, an alpargata or a cabuya rug.

May this book circulate, be written on, be lent and be argued over. That will be the best sign that it served its purpose.

Foreword

Mayor of Aratoca