Uquía's great ceramist
The enormous Juan Geronimo
As fate would have it, just before a trip we had scheduled to visit Cusi Cusi, I had to give a class on constitutional law. At the end of the lecture, a student approached me and asked me a question. Alejandra introduced herself by telling me that she was from Uquía, so I immediately told her about our upcoming trip to Jujuy. So without hesitation, with spontaneity, she invited me to see the work of her father, the ceramist Juan Geronimo.
By then I had to tell her about @tripticity_, so she immediately offered to coordinate everything so we could visit his workshop.
That's how I met Alejandra Geronimo.
A couple of days later, when we arrived in Uquía, of course we went to meet Geronimo. Right in front of the San Francisco church, the first stall on the right exhibits and sells both his production and some other souvenirs of the Quebrada de Humahuaca.
As soon as we arrived Francisco, a kind neighboring stallkeeper, gave us the gift of two ceramic pots with a white finish on the inside, which we later learned was a glazed vitrification process. Why Francisco? It was because we had been delayed longer than expected at Las Señoritas, the large dining room in Uquía.
So, guided by our kind intermediary, we went to the workshop on the other side of National Route 9.
Smiling, Juan opened the door to his world, willing to share it with us, with absolute tranquility, as if all the time in the world could be dedicated to that moment.
First he showed us where he collects the clay, which he brings from Chucalezna.
Then the process that follows, to achieve the conditions to be molded.
As he recounted each step, he allowed himself to slip in one joke after another, jokes and stories about life, always with a hyper-optimistic message and repeating his dogma of "will is power".
He was orphaned at a very young age, so his mother raised her family with great effort.
It was in Chucalezna where, as a teenager, he met and fell in love with the ceramist's trade forever.
Some time later he became a teacher, and today his students have become his colleagues.
Juan produces objects in series using plaster molds, but he also allows himself to continue making unique pieces.
Once the "bizcocho" is ready, he paints each piece with unique designs, some of which he has already registered, such as thin, slender llamas that look cheerful, just as he is.
He even sold some of these designs to Cerámica San Lorenzo, for the mass production of decorative ceramics.
Time went by and with every question we asked him, he smiled and said "don't make me impatient", that he would tell us about the other part of the process.
Then he showed us the two modern ovens that he had acquired -with a lot of effort- to be able to produce more quantity.
During the tour he was accompanied by Mailén, his daughter-in-law, who also -like us- had fun listening to the great character that is Juan Gerónimo.
Then he sat down in front of the natural dyes, and without thinking he sketched a drawing on a pot to show us the design stage.
He then urged us to choose one of the gourds he had ready, as he wanted to give it to us as a gift.
When he told us that he had another gift to give us, we thought it was too much and confessed that we could not accept it, but with a mischievous face he replied that we were going to do it and we were going to take it with us forever as a souvenir. So he changed his coca acullico, brought his quena and let the great musician of other times be reborn, when as a young man he was part of the legendary Ricardo Vilca's group. He started to play for us! The emotion was enormous.
Experiences that @tripticity_ gives us in each trip, allowing us to meet valuable people willing to share with us their life stories, those that inspire and are a bath of motivation.
So moved, we left for La Quiaca, saying goodbye to the enormous Juan Geronimo and thanking the easy-going and beautiful Alejandra for having shared with us her dad, his joy of life and his beautiful work in ceramics.