Every year, some weeks before Christmas, the Familia Artesanal Don Bosco (Family of Artisans of Don Bosco) organizes an exposition in Sucre with furniture made by young rural boys and girls from and in remote places. We visited one of their first expositions in 2006 just by accident, and were impressed by the original design and quality. We were just starting the renovation of the hotel and not thinking in furniture at all, but soon after we decided to look for the organization and see if it would be feasible for them to supply furniture for the whole hotel.

Only after some vain attempts to find the organization’s offices, we finally found one in the town of Cochabamba, more than 300 kms from our place in Sucre. We started negotiating, but for the ultimate details of the agreement they sent us to their workshop in Peña Colorada, in the middle of nowhere on the dirt road between Sucre and Santa Cruz, 5 hours drive from Sucre. We made it and had very interesting and instructive conversations about the history of the Familia Artisanal of Don Bosco, founded by the Salesian priest Ugo de Censi some three decades ago in Peru. Nowadays, the vocational training workshops count with more than 600 students and they are present in 5 Peruvian provinces and 6 Bolivian locations: Escoma, Carabuco, Peña Colorada, Bolivar, Ambana, Poster Valle, in the poorest parts of the country.

The trip to their workshops had to be repeated several times, like a way to get more involvement with the organization and the young artisans themselves. Apart from Peña Colorado, also Escoma and Carabuco, some 200 kms north of the city of La Paz, were visited, the main places of production.

The students receive free education, accommodation and food. The artisanal vocational training takes 7 years and is combined with regular education. When finishing their study, they receive a set of tools and can decide on staying with the Don Bosco artisans´ cooperative or looking for other horizons. The first option is encouraged, to maintain the experience and skills in benefit of the rural communities, but of course other temptations exist for the competent workers within or outside Bolivia.

The organization gets donations from local parishes of the Italian Catholic church, which are also invested in social infrastructure, but in the more recent years the sale of furniture is an important income source.

It was exciting to see the pride on the faces of the young artisans, which expresses itself also in the marks they leave on the furniture: several of the pieces in the hotel have the name of the artist at the bottom or backside. This gives the furniture an even more unique character, apart from the already very exclusive design which is a fusion resulting from Italian experienced designers working for free for the organization using Andean symbols and styles.

If you come to the hotel and you sleep in the hand-made carved beds or sit on one of the peculiar chairs, you will be able to feel the special radiation of this mix of religious motivation, individual dedication and Andes cosmovision. Come and have a try at Hotel Villa Antigua in Sucre.

In the case of Sucre, recently an interesting book was published: “Sucre, la Ciudad del Chocolate” by Gaston Solares, one of the most active promoters of the chocolate industry and co-owner of the ‘Para Ti’ (‘For you’) company. It gives one clear reason and another nice hypothesis about the linkage between Sucre and chocolate: In the colonial times, from the 18^th century, the cultivation of cocoa in Bolivia was introduced and promoted in the Moxos and Chiquitos region in the current Santa Cruz and Beni departments by the Jesuits. Sucre was the administrative centre of what nowadays is Bolivia and the route for the trade of cocoa from the Moxos and Chiquitos region had to pass by Sucre to be sold in the cities of Tarija and Potosí. Don’t forget that thanks to the mining, especially silver, the latter city in the 17^th century had more population than London and Paris, so it was an important market with purchasing power. Quality control was done, taxes were paid and cocoa auctions were held in Sucre. The use of chocolate drink was popular and widespread in the criollo population, influenced by their European ancestors and relatives. The book includes an anecdote about the protagonist of the first Scream for Liberty in Latin America, Jaime de Zudañez, who was drinking a cup of chocolate in his house in Sucre at the moment that the realist soldiers took him to prison the 25^th of May of 1809.

Only from 1890 the consumption habit of (solid) chocolate and bonbons came up, again influenced by developments in Europe, and this induced to the first investments in industrial production with Sucre as the pioneer place within Bolivia.

Another, hypothetic reason, although in my opinion quite possible, is that the founder of Sucre, Pedro de Anzures de Campo Redondo, is the same person who “discovered” native Bolivian cocoa plants. Cocoa exploitation has its origin in Mexico, where the nuts even were used as money, and in the colonial times spread from there to Europe and then over the rest of the world. Nowadays, main cocoa production countries are Ivory Coast and Ghana in East Africa and Brazil in South America, but that was only after colonizers introduced the plantations. Apparently, one of those colonizers in Bolivia discovered a local variety and encouraged the interest of exploitation, where Sucre became a dynamic stage within the chain: promoting harvesting, trade and processing of the cocoa.

In the 21^st century, the chocolate industry in Sucre received a new impulse, mainly led by the local Chamber of Industry and Commerce, CAINCO. Several new small enterprises have been set up thanks to the enthusiasm created by a value chain analysis and a resulting training program, which led to new products, variety and (perhaps) better quality (although others might say that in older times everything was better). Currently, most of the raw material comes from the northern area of La Paz and Beni.

Tourism and the chocolate industry complement very well, as the chocolates and bonbons are an attraction for visitors to Sucre, the packages of the chocolate bars include beautiful images of the city and on the other hand the national and international tourists are an important market for the local production. A more integrated collaboration could also include the organisation of tours for tourists that visit one of the hotels in Sucre to get to know the history and the industrial and artisanal ways of chocolate and bonbon making.

The important relationship between tourism and chocolate is the reason that Hotel Villa Antigua promotes this chocolate identity of Sucre.

First a written impression from the academic historian and professor of Spanish History Roger Martinez of the University of Colorado:

The city, founded by the Spanish in the mid-1500s as “La Plata”, or “Silver”, was the colonial capitol of the region of Charcas.  After the Spanish discovered and began their exploitation of the rich mineral wealth located in Potosi, aka “Cerro Rico” or “Rich Mountain”, the Spanish selected Sucre as a more temperate location to reside. As a result of the extensive wealth derived from Potosi, the city of La Plata became the home of the Spanish Real Audiencia, Roman Catholic Church, monasteries, and universities in the region.  Thus the city took on the feel of a late-medieval Spanish town with an impressive collection of religious institutions and civic buildings. In this manner, Sucre is a very unique home of Spanish culture that was transplanted and transformed as it integrated with native Quechua-speaking people.

Then a visual impression* of the photographer Waldo Maluenda which very well complements the words above:

Click to view slideshow.

So for everyone who wants to experience colonial Latin or South America or to get to know Bolivia, Sucre is the place to visit. Not without reason the UNESCO nominated the city as a World Heritage Site.

To stay in the right ambiance and immerse in the history, there are several nice hotels in Sucre Bolivia, being Hotel Villa Antigua a good option: www.villaantiguahotel.com.

*: These photos may not be reproduced without permission of the photographer.

In December 2009 a new and different hotel option in Sucre opened its doors. Hotel Villa Antigua is located in a Republican-style mansion dated from 1860, restored with great dedication by its owners: Maria Teresa Molina and Dick Commandeur. It took them 4 years to repair and rebuild the old part, strengthening and highlighting the earlier structures, removing those of more recent origin and adding new spaces needed to achieve a hotel with visual history, but at the same time modern, safe and comfortable for domestic and foreign visitors. The existing materials have mostly been recovered, restored and reused, such as beams, doors and natural stones. A fusion of the Republican style, with its pillars and thick walls of adobe, was applied, with an architectural vision, great contribution of the architect Daniel Contreras, summarized in a phrase that has guided and determined the process: “the old must not be imitated, but can be enhanced with architecture of integration”.  It led us to a result of colonial impact with an air of elegant sobriety and great style, unique in this beautiful city.

In the rooms you can feel the history from the walls of the era when measurement was not yet rectilinear and accurate and by the particular use of materials and colours. But at the same time, they seem modern by the style of decoration, warm and unobtrusive, with the use of natural elements and original artwork of Bolivia. The furniture has its own history and expresses real art, and also carries this blend of modern design with details of ancient Andean elements: Jalq’a, Tarabuco and Tihuanacota. All the furniture comes from the Young Craftsmen of the Family Don Bosco, a project in rural areas that develops local boys and girls to top quality carpenters. It took several trips to their remote working places in Peña Colorada (Cochabamba), Escoma and Carabuco (La Paz) to get to know the hard work and dedication of those young people and their Italian and Bolivian teachers and to agree on designs, the use of cedar wood, the carvings and finishing touches. All this effort was motivated by the desire of the owners to put, from the very early idea of the hotel, the seal of social responsibility to their venture.

The garden and courtyard have been restored to its former glory and they are among the most extensive ones in the city. As in the past, we used a lot of natural stone to highlight the ancient relationship between man and nature. The courtyard has a discrete fountain that contributes to the aesthetics but also to the feelings of calm and freshness of the visitors and for its particular simplicity and detail even draws the attention to the passers-by on the street. New are the terraces and viewpoint, which, taking advantage of the location on a steeper part of the city, allow a unique look at the red roofs of the old city and the hills and mountains around. Visitors are highly impressed with the sunset and remain seated until the usual refreshing night temperature encourages them to seek some warmth and coverage.

During construction there have been many surprises, such as: a double wall, beams tied with leather, wood carvings, a carved stone indicating the death of one of the ancient inhabitants, plastering made with manure, partitions made of cane between rooms, and others. To ensure that the building can resist a major number of people, a complete new concrete structure has been integrated, cleverly incorporated in and under the walls of adobe. In this way, now it enables to offer a large conference room and a restaurant on the first floor with views of Mount Bishop, as well as it made it possible to have an additional floor below the original roof, without affecting the height of it.

The new Hotel Villa Antigua, whose name expresses the history of the house and the city, is visited by travellers from elsewhere in the country and abroad, but also by many residents of Sucre who cannot resist the temptation to take a look at the patio to feel the air emitted by the old galleries, traditional windows and doors and by the central stairway that seems to lead till heaven.

For more information, please visit our website: www.villaantiguahotel.com

Para nosotros de Hotel Villa Antigua fue bonito que pasaron por el hotel en Sucre, como también atestiguan las fotos.

Los muy interesados ya pueden hacer sus reservas para el carnaval de 2012: villaantigua@gmail.com o vía nuestra página web: www.villaantiguahotel.com.

En diciembre 2009, enriqueciendo la oferta existente de hoteles en Sucre, se abrió una nueva y diferente opción hotelera en Sucre. El hotel Villa Antigua se ubicó en una casona de estilo republicano de 1860, que fue restaurada con mucho empeño de sus propietarios: María Teresa Molina y Dick Commandeur, a quienes les costó 4 años para reconstruir, habilitar y reponer la parte antigua, reforzando y resaltando las estructuras antiguas, retirando las  de más reciente origen y añadiendo nuevos espacios necesarios para tener un hotel con historia visual, pero a la vez moderno, seguro y confortable para los visitantes del interior y exterior. Los materiales anteriores en su mayoría han sido recuperados, restaurados y reutilizados, como son las vigas, puertas y piedras. Se ha aplicado una fusión de lo que es el estilo republicano, con sus pilares y gruesos muros de adobe, con una visión arquitectónica, gran aporte del arquitecto Daniel Contreras, que se resume en una frase que orientó y determinó el proceso referido “lo antiguo no se imita pero se puede realzar con una arquitectura de integración” esto nos llevó a un resultado de impacto señorial con un aire de sobriedad y gran estilo, único en esta bella ciudad.

En las habitaciones uno siente la historia por las paredes de la época, cuando la rectitud exacta aún no existía y el uso de materiales y colores. Pero al mismo momento, parecen ámbitos modernos, por el estilo de decoración: cálida y discreta, con uso de elementos naturales y obras de arte originales bolivianas. Los muebles son una historia y un arte aparte,  pero también conlleva esta mezcla de diseño moderno con detalles de elementos andinos antiguos: Jalq’a, Tarabuco y Tihuanacota. Todo el mobiliario proviene de los Jóvenes Artesanos de la Familia Don Bosco, un proyecto que forma carpinteros de primera calidad en las áreas rurales. Se ha tenido que viajar varias veces a los centros remotos de trabajo en Peña Colorada (Cochabamba) Carabuco y Escoma (La Paz) para conocer el gran esfuerzo y la dedicación de los jóvenes y sus instructores italianos y bolivianos, para acordar sobre los diseños, el uso de madera cedro, los tallados y el acabado. Todo este esfuerzo fue motivado porque,  desde la concepción del hotel, los propietarios quisieron poner el sello de responsabilidad social a su emprendimiento.

El jardín y el patio han recobrado su esplendor de antaño y difícilmente se los encuentra con mayor amplitud en la ciudad. Como en el pasado, se ha utilizado mucha piedra natural para resaltar la antigua vinculación del hombre con la naturaleza. El patio cuenta con una fuente de agua discreta, que aporta a la estética pero también a la sensación de tranquilidad y frescura de los visitantes y que por su particular simpleza y detalle atrae la atención hasta de los pasantes en la calle. Nuevas son las terrazas y el mirador, que, aprovechando de la ubicación en una parte con mayor pendiente, permiten una mirada única sobre los tejados rojos de la ciudad vieja y los cerros y serranías alrededor. Los visitantes quedan impactados con el crepúsculo y se quedan sentados mirando hasta que la noche les motiva a buscar algo de cobertura.

Durante la construcción se han encontrado muchas sorpresas, como son: alguna doble pared, las vigas amarradas con cuero, maderas talladas, una piedra indicando el fallecimiento de uno de los habitantes antiguos, estuco hecho con bosta, división de caña entre los cuartos y otros. Para asegurar que el edificio pueda soportar mayor número de personas, se ha incorporado una estructura completa de hormigón armado, hábilmente incorporada en y debajo de los muros de adobe. De esta manera se podía habilitar un amplio salón de conferencias y un restaurante en el primer piso con vista hacia el cerro El Obispo y construir un piso adicional debajo del techo, sin afectar la altura original del mismo.

El nuevo hotel Villa Antigua, cuyo nombre expresa la historia de la casa y la ciudad, es visitado por viajeros de otros lados del país y del exterior, pero también por muchos habitantes de Sucre que no han resistido la tentación de echar un vistazo en el patio para sentir el aire del antaño que desciende de las galerías, de las ventanas y puertas tradicionales y de la grada central que pareciera remontar hasta el cielo.

Para mayor información visite nuestra página web: www.villaantiguahotel.com