2023-05-10 14:30:33
More than 10,000 virtual followers celebrate Barro sin bero, from its Facebook page. Every day hundreds of customers (including wholesalers) visit the store on Avenida 41, between 56 and 59, in San Antonio de los Baños; while others taste coffee or juice in cups or jars from this business.
As Cerámicas Maday began the project in 2004, and in 2016, already more consolidated, they assume the current name, position themselves in the market, and grow beyond the family patio, where the first kiln burned, to a new location that requires adding other hands, mostly female.
The patriarch of so many cups and other ceramic pieces, Jorge Armando Acosta Álvarez, “studied Chemistry and worked for 48 years as a technologist in Rincón, between insulators and some crockery, not with the exquisiteness that we work here, but he was taking that bug to home and we get involved.
“From deposits in Pinar del Río we transport clay, feldspar from Holguín and kaolin from the Isla de la Juventud. Make us a mixture and with flocculants plus plaster, from Santiago de Cuba and Ciego de Ávila, which we crush, grind and then roast, begin the arduous process until we end up in art, hence we are members of the Cuban Association of Artisans Artists, registered in the Registry of the Creator and members of the Cuban Fund of Cultural Assets”.
A woman graduated in Civil Construction, Maday Acosta Posada, brings us closer to so much effort, who assures that she started in this task with a base in drawing, but not so much in art, but is distinguished as a natural entrepreneur, capable of providing sustenance to many families from Ariguanabo.
“At home, with my grandfather as well, the family tried to work with ceramics in the difficult years of the special period. The scarcity of resources froze the idea, but in 2004, after graduating and not being satisfied with my performance, I entered this world, and I started with the first cup of coffee”.
Hands on the job
How to get to a mold? “We try to create functional, utilitarian pieces, each one with her own experience, thinking about designs, shapes, textures, colors…”
The process begins when creativity and imagination, with a dose of rationality, are put into context. Diverse ideas converge, including those of the workers, and a lifelong family friend, Jesús de la Campa Martel, a die maker by trade and academia, returns the die or mold to them.
“We have more than ten models of cups and 50 articles. By referring shapes and decoration, hundreds of creations.
“We work online, exclusively, and a series of pieces pass from hand to hand until they are desired. We recover the material that is left over from the pieces when making cuts or polishing, as long as it does not go through the oven, ”he insists.
What design do you prefer? Maday states, after seconds of hindsight, that it is “the cup that she seems to dance to, her name is Bella. She is super functional because of her handle. The finger that holds it is very comfortable. We join the set of pieces such as coffee pot, sugar bowl, all utilitarian.
“Know? The cups have the name of a woman Sofía, Mía, Lena…, the latter coincides with the fact that the granddaughter of its creator was born the day we approved her mold. She also defines that many of the hands capable of shaping them are feminine.
“Eliani doesn’t stop polishing, being very serious when acting; Leslie, with a high sense of belonging, is always ready and Lisi, in just a few weeks, she shows talent ”, defines Maday, crediting the progress and work in the family.
Likewise, in another location that is being prepared on Calle 76, where other small ovens will facilitate production, Yanisel, passionate about designs with sunflowers, carefully extracts pieces from the molds; meanwhile, he knows that despite the majority of female faces, tattooed boys merge with the ease of Barro sin berro.
“Edgar has been there for almost a year, with improvement as a constant; Pepito, a super curious person, is in charge of the pasta; Yosvani, first carried boxes and now they have part of the confidence in themselves when molding very complex pieces; Nosle recently joined, and it goes very well with the couple’s glasses. René, with nine years in the workshop, knows everything”.
And Didier Acosta Posada? “That is my brother, an Electronics technician, who adds use value to the equipment, which is obsolete in many places,” says Maday while mentioning Luis, “a very important link, and not only because he is my husband, but because he has been around five years He has spent years all the economics and computer science of the workshop, and adds knowledge as an engineer in Telecommunications and Electronics “.
Everything is articulated through a founder of such passion, Zoraida Posada, mother of the clay family in San Antonio, shelter of will, also a manager of ideas turned into art, for about 20 years.
Almost 20 years, and they dream more
Tradition, spark, youth, discipline, desire to learn, speed, will, sum up the skills of those who find their reason for existing by molding clay.
Would it have made no difference if Barro sin Berro was born in Bahía Honda or Mariel? No! It is the huge response. The Ariguanabo inspires. José also mixes intelligence and smiles in the history of the Museum of Humor.
He owes those contests to Manuel Hernández Valdés, caricaturist painter and ceramist from Matanzas. He was a pioneer in putting a ceramic plate with humor, reveals Jorge Armando.
“Later I devised, to quote one of the honored pieces, a frog on top of another, and I titled it: Then they say that frogs are cold, that it was a Prize and we reproduced a lot. Also at the Biennial we reward a work for its message and aesthetic quality. In 2023 Honors, by Jorge García”.
How do you appreciate Barro without cress in a few years? Jorge sums up that “an onda Café humor is an immediate dream. A bohemian site, still undefined, where our ceramics are in tune with the aromas of black nectar, without ceasing to be that group of creation without watercress, with filial love and the desire to always empower clay so that it lasts”.
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