At the airport all leaving the island seem to have one. Whether they’re tourists that came to discover the Caribbean or Cubans that returned to their homeland after many years, they all have one. The truth is that most of them hold tight in their hands a straw hat, like a irrefutable proof of their passage through Cuba.
Chances are that those who arrive today will also be wearing one by the time they leave. During the stay the hat will be a faithful companion, a protector from the sun. Back home they will be a reminder of the adventures they went through in a magical region.
Buying them shouldn’t be a problem. It’s easy to find on Obispo Street, at Feria de La Rampa or at an Artex souvenir shop. It will always be there, along with knit dresses, T-shirts of Che and carved cigar boxes. And it is that the straw hat is a symbol of Cuba, within and outside the island.
It might even be considered the national hat of Cubans. Said to be a garment worn by peasants at all times, and being that the case it is difficult to know who made the first and still harder who wore it first.
It should suffice to say that Cirilo Villaverde wrote the story “La tejedora del sombrero de yarey “(The weaver of straw hat) in the nineteenth century and Lecuona wrote an opera about it. Is so ingrained in the traditions that the Afro-Cuban pantheon of Orishas (gods) you find Echu Janus, and one of his distinguishing features is a straw hat.
The technique of making these hats from ancient times has reached our time. Its name is due precisely to the plant from which the material is obtained to produce the yarey, also known as “guano”.
From the palm tree we obtained a flexible fiber which is woven into hats. You must first wait ten days for the yarey to mature. Then, at night and preferably with a waning moon, it cut the leaf to the size you want to work with.
Several handicrafts daily relive the method of making these objects that are in such demand. Prices vary depending on the finish of the product or the delicacy of weaving, but everyone seems to have one.
The versions of the classical model vary from one head to another, so we can find them adorned with ribbons, broad-brimmed, small or very large. There is one for every taste, even the most modern and demanding, because, though the years pass, straw hats are always in fashion.
