Tradition under the southern sun

People in the countryside in Chile’s central region look very sophisticated as they gallop along beneath the trees and among their crops. This is because they are wearing a huaso hat, a hallmark of rural identity and also their most characteristic item of clothing.

Published in Avianca Inflight Magazine

‘Huaso’ comes from the Mapuche and Quechua word huasu, meaning ‘horse haunches’.

Curicó province, in the Maule valley, is dominated by the green of its vineyards and fruit plantations. That its products have been exported all over the world is due to the hard work of the Huasos, as country people of central and southern Chile are called.

‘Huaso’ comes from the Mapuche and Quechua word huasu, meaning ‘horse haunches’. The earliest references to this word date back to the 18th century, when the Spanish chroniclers began to refer in this way to the men who always rode on horseback wearing a poncho, shawl and hat.

These clothes are still worn today, and in the Sagrada Familia commune, a mere three hours from Santiago, the Bustamante family upholds the tradition of making the huaso hat. “I’ve supported my family for a long time by making them. 40 years have passed since my uncle taught me how, and today my son is continuing the tradition”, says Patricio Bustamante, a hat-maker from the region.

In his workshop, Patricio takes three days to make a huaso hat from rabbit fur, which is a soft, strong and waterproof material.

The first step in making a hat is to measure the customer, and the dimensions of the head are marked with the help of a ‘shaper’ (an ancient gadget made in France or England, of wood and brass). This is then passed through a mold, which fixes the desired shape, while a boiling glue is prepared. The heat during this stage gives the hat consistency, until it is dried and passed through a device called a formillón, which ensures that it retains the same size and shape throughout the process.

The size of the brim is then determined, and the crown is formed properly. When this has been done, an iron is used to fix the points where the different parts meet, mark the direction of the fur, and define the brim. The ritual is almost complete, as all that remains is to pass the hat to the decoration zone, where a hand-made ribbon or border is sewn on the outside and the cord for tying it is fixed on the inside, together with the leather band that fits close to the head and absorbs sweat, and the lining.

THE HAT CULTURE

“A huaso without a hat isn’t a huaso”, pronounces Bustamante. But like all clothing, this item has changed with the passing of time and as fashions have altered. In the early 20th century, a low crown with a short brim was all the rage, but hats in the mid-sixties became disproportionate, with very high crowns and smaller brims. The size that is worn today has been in use since 1980.

The huaso hat has been worn for two centuries in activities all over the Chilean countryside. One of the most traditional of these is the rodeo, which was considered a national sport in 1962. In the half-moon (the circular area where it takes place), horsemen wear the hat as a sign of the rodeo spirit that has been handed down from generation to generation.

Parents nowadays try to get their children to follow in the family business and preserve the huaso tradition, while the hat is an important symbol of the so-called ‘Chileanity Week’, which is celebrated in the first half of September.