Fair for the Denomination of Origin

March 17th & 18th, 2007 Chulucanas, Peru

Fair for the Denomination of Origin

The ceramics that are made in the zone where I live are receiving a denomination of origin. Basically, it signifies that this particular product is made in the region it claims to be from and such. For example, champagne being from Champagne. This way other artisans in Peru or the rest of the world for that matter, can´t make a style of pottery similar to ours and claim that is Chulucanas style. Now each workshop will undergo a system of quality control and must maintain this level of quality. Each workshop will receive the stamp proving that their product is a part of the committee.

To celebrate reaching this milestone, the city of Chulucanas hosted a fair. Many of my artisans set up stands in the Plaza de Armas. Tourists bought from the stands while bands played music and professional dancers did demonstrations of traditional dances. There were also demonstrations of the process involved in making a piece of pottery. There were also contests for different age groups. Although Chulucanas is a town of about 40,000 people and La Encantada only inhabits about 3,500, La Encantada won 7 out of the 8 possible prizes. My host mom won in the women´s category and my host dad won the best overall piece.