Isla de Chira: Santuario o reducto agónico de la cerámica precolombina

Abstract

The pottery activity of Doña Damiana Matarrita, which might be the last depositary of the Chorotegan art of making ceramic pieces, was documented in three separate visits over a three decade span, to Chira Island (Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica).In the beginning her work consisted of utilitarian pieces like pots and comales, but tourism boom in Puntarenas where she sold her work, made her design and color become richer, changing from utilitarian pieces to ornamental ones. After her death, we witnessed the loss of this activity because none of her daughters had continued this tradition thus that part of pre-Columbian inheritance which had remained in the island was lost. However, one of her daughters, about sixty years old now, learned her mother’s trade and helped her when she was young, so there is still hope for a rebirth of Chira ceramic, which is waiting for the help needed to make it again a source of income, oriented towards the incipient tourism in the island.