“At the pampas, the impressions are rapid, spasmodic, to then
disappear in the width of the environment, leaving no trace.”
Ricardo Güiraldes. Don Segundo Sombra.

Gallery 4
The poncho

José de San Martín, Lucio V. Mansilla and cacique (chief) Calfucurá were three historical figures and three Ponchos (hand-woven piece of clothing) marked by the depths of time. These ponchos –as well as a numerous set of pieces from private collections- constitute the this gallery. The room, devoted to the most characteristic element of the plain, has on display Pehuenche, Pampa and Ranquel pieces, hand-woven with wool, as well as some English manufactured ponchos produced in woolen cloth.     

The poncho given to general San Martín during the crossing of the Andes - courtesy of the Museo Histórico Nacional -; a poncho given by Ranquel cacique Mariano Rosas to general Mansilla –mentioned in the novel Una excursión a los indios ranqueles (An expedition into Ranquel Indians)– and the poncho owned by the great cacique Calfucurá - courtesy of the Museo Gauchesco Ricardo Güiraldes - constitute the frame of reference for a comprehensive tour of colors, patterns and designs characteristic of the garment essential in the social dynamics of the 19th Century.   

The poncho is a simple and elegant garment for men, handmade by his spouse. It covers the basic need of warmth, while still enabling free movement. It is the permanent and faithful companion of the pampas inhabitant. Ponchos are described in several travelers’ testimonies. In 1760, Dom Pernetty, states: "In regards to how people were dressed [...], they wear a sort of striped garment, with different colored bounds (listas), with a unique slit in the middle in order to pass their head. This coat falls over shoulders covering the body up to the fists, falling to the front and back at knee-length; and with fringes around the edges; they are called ponchos”. These testimonies talk about the great size and striped pattern that characterized this type of clothing, as they were first used by gauchos. Painter and traveler E. E. Vidal (1820) writes that, in Peru and Salta, “the manufacture of ponchos is famous; they were made out of cotton, highly priced and of great beauty; however, those executed by the humble Indians from the pampas were made of wool, closely-woven, and strong, so as to resist heavy rain. The way they were decorated was intriguing and original, the colors were moderate but long lasting; although they have dyes with brighter color, they use them for other purposes”.

“In the beginning of the 19th Century, the poncho was present in the preparation of the liberating campaigns. During the time of the independence, the expeditionary armies of Ortiz de Ocampo to Alto Perú, of Belgrano to Paraguay (and afterwards to the north), and to the Andes, passed by populations that lived in the countryside, received persistent donations in reales (Spanish currency), horses, mules, blankets, goat fur and mainly ponchos” asserted Ruth Corcuera in Herencia textil andina (Textile Inheritance of the Andes).

England was the big textile manufacturer of the time and exported cotton yarn, wool and diverse fabrics for the making of suits and dresses. The English manufactured poncho was a wanted piece, specially by the Indians, who traded many handmade ponchos, of great craft value, for one industrially made, whose use was widely spread. Even though some of these ponchos reproduced floral designs traditional of the Victorian era, the majority of the patters were strange to the English tradition. Manufactured for the local market, they included an enormous range of earth and night sky colors: slender representations of ñandu feathers, cloaks with images of bobcats, suns, stars, moons, thunderbolts, and designs called “ojo de perdiz” (eye of a quail), “grecas” (girdles with repeating pattern) and “guardas” (vertical design pattern).   
 
The poncho patria, also manufactured in England, had a collar and a slit that was buttoned up in the chest. It is a possible adaptation of similar military Spanish cloaks, which military authorities gave the caciques. Their use was also very popular. 
Federico Bárbara states in Usos y costumbres de los indios pampas (Uses and habits of the Pampa Indians) (1856): “Women had the indispensable obligation to spin the yard and knit in order to dress their husband, on top of providing fabric for their sons.”

Bibliography:
- Clara M. Abal de Russo, Arte textil incaico, Fund. CEPPA, Buenos Aires, 2010
- Ruth Corcuera, Herencia textil andina, Fund. CEPPA, Buenos Aires, 2010
- Ruth Corcuera, Diseños y colores en la llanura
- Juan Carlos Garavaglia, “El poncho: una historia multiétnica” en Guillaume Boccara (ed.), Colonización, resistencia y mestizaje en las Américas
(siglos XVI-XX). IFEA / Abya-Yala, Quito, 2002
- Lucio V. Mansilla, Una excursión a los indios ranqueles, Buenos Aires, 1870. http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Una_excursi%C3%B3n_a_los_indios_ranqueles