Photo: Iván Rodriguez

Healthy living by day, electronic fiesta by night

Paul Jove’s soft, measured voice rises over trance-like music as he explains the origin of the psychedelic artwork adorning the back room of NamasTé, a vegetarian restaurant in La Paz. When Jove (a.k.a. Pituko) bought the building in 2005, it was a dingy bar with darkened windows that has since passed through many transformations. The space has served as a tea-shop, a yoga room, a workshop space, a venue for electronic and reggae parties and art exhibitions as well as a restaurant serving delicious vegan and vegetarian lunches.

The trajectory of NamasTé reflects Pituko’s personal growth. First and foremost he was, and still is, an enthusiastic DJ and avid fan of electronic music. From 2008 to 2011, Saturday nights at NamasTé saw a health-conscious restaurant metamorphose into an exclusive, late-night party venue for paceños with discerning music tastes. Pituko, however, lamented the commerciality and excessive attention that these parties generated so he decided to cut down to monthly, then yearly and then hosted events even less frequently at the venue. In its current state of evolution, NamasTé is a relaxed lunch restaurant and Pituko is concentrating on playing house and techno music on weekends at a variety of venues across La Paz.

The pillars of NamasTé are creativity, family cooperation and heightened awareness.

Although Pituko discontinued the NamasTé parties to separate his double-life of vegetarian restaurant owner and electronic music producer, the aesthetic and music in the restaurant still indicate his keen interest in electronic music. He was a musician and DJ in the United States before coming to Bolivia in 2005. His dedication to vegetarian food and animal rights came later. His career as DJ and music producer is the manifestation of his personal passion. The driving force behind NamasTé is his love and respect for his family.

Surprisingly enough, Pituko was not a vegetarian when he opened up NamasTé. It was his sister, an animal rights lobbyist and activist in the United States, who suggested he only serve vegetarian food at his restaurant. As a sign of support, Pituko acquiesced and began his journey into lobbying and fighting for animal rights. In 2011, he began to eat a purely vegetarian diet himself and in 2012 he started offering vegan options and reducing dairy products across the menu. In a similar vein, when his father contracted coeliac disease, Pituko began researching gluten-free alternatives and slowly reduced the use of gluten in NamasTé’s products. From the rave-coloured murals painted by his brother and friends, to the philosophy behind eating a vegetarian diet, the pillars of NamasTé are creativity, family cooperation and heightened awareness.

‘There has been a conscious shift towards vegetarianism over the past five to seven years,’ says Pituko, as he applauds the ongoing work of La Paz’s stalwart advocates and producers of vegetarian food. But just as he passes on the ethical nutrition baton, he picks up another, and this one glows in the dark. Pituko is a multifaceted man who embraces challenges. As NamasTé settles comfortably into its current form, he is already itching for his next transformation.

But as he passes on the ethical nutrition baton, he is picking up another, and this one glows in the dark.

As cofounder of San Pedro Music, an electronic music record company, Pituko’s sights are set on creating high quality electronic music events in La Paz. He realises the current nightlife laws in the city pose a challenge for this dream, which is why he aims to organise semi-private gigs in the altiplano wilderness and return to the basics of the electronic movement. His voice rises as he recounts tales of travels, plans for records and his DJ career in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. NamasTé may no longer be the hub of activism and hedonism that it once was, but there is no doubt that Pituko will carry on innovating, growing and creating, whether it be via a vegetarian restaurant in La Paz or the decks at full moon parties in Thailand.

For more information:

Address: Zoilo Flores #1334, La Paz

Tel.: +591 22481401

Photo: Adriana Murillo

The voice of Bolivia’s poetic song

Upon opening the green gate of a house in the centre of Sucre, I was overcome by a sense of tranquillity when I saw the kind face of Matilde Casazola. Throughout my life, I’ve read her poetry and heard her songs, with their remarkable lyrics and beautiful melodies; this is a woman whom I’ve admired for a long time. She invited me to come into her living room, where even the walls and the furniture seemed to emanate an artistic charm.

Born in the city of Sucre in 1943, Matilde Casazola’s life has always seemed bound to art. Her grandfather was the writer and doctor Jaime Mendoza, who left a legacy of investigative work on mining and rubber workers in Bolivia. Matilde’s sister, Gabriela, was her playmate as a child, and they would write and recite poetic pieces together. Her mother, Tula Mendoza, was a poet and composer from Potosí and her father, Juan Casazola, was a language teacher. Matilde’s family strengthened her artistic spirit, encouraging her musical and poetic inclinations. ‘Ever since I was a little girl I’ve always loved poetry. I grew up in a very open-minded household. We all loved music and art. Poetry has always been present in my life, since the very beginning,” she notes.

Matilde started writing at the age of eight, mainly about nature and her surroundings. During her teenage years, she took music classes in the Escuela Nacional de Maestros de Sucre, where she started learning the piano. Ultimately, however, the guitar was her instrument of choice, and she had classical guitar lessons and private music classes with Spanish musician Pedro García Ripoll.

Patient and serene, she tells me about the experiences that have shaped her life. ‘In my nomadic years,’ she says, ‘I met an Argentinian artist whom I married and we travelled to different places together.’ While travelling with her husband, Matilde would put on puppet shows and it was through this that she started writing. Initially, she would only share her poems and songs with her closest friends, but she soon realised her lyrics and melodies needed to shared more publicly. ‘Composing and writing stopped being a hobby and became a passion for me. Later, it became a way of life,’ she says.

Her first poetry book was published in 1967, a time when she and her husband Alexis Antíguez were in exile. Alexis was suspected of having ties with Che Guevara’s guerrilla group, so they spent many years in Argentina. ‘During that time I was finding my voice as an artist and developing my writing,’ she says. After returning to Bolivia in 1974, Matilde began giving guitar lessons and doing recitals in La Paz, nurturing what would later become the legendary voice of Bolivian poetic song.

‘I’ve always loved simplicity. I like performing on small stages, singing songs about life and everyday themes,’ Matilde says, in a modest and sincere tone of voice. Staying true to herself, she started to play more intimate concerts and to compose songs known for their strong poetic message. Thus she gained a legion of fans who fell in love with her style of songwriting and performing. I myself found her songs to be a comfort when I was far from home, living away from Bolivia. I would sing one song in particular from the bottom of my heart, ‘De Regreso’ (‘The Return’): ‘From afar I return./ I already have you in my sight./ I’m already gazing at the silhouettes of my mountains in your infinite horizon./ From afar, from those horizons that I’m escaping,/ today I’m returning to your infinite horizon Pachamama, Pachamama…’

Countless Bolivian artists have interpreted ‘De Regreso’ as well as many other songs of Matilde’s. Singers such as: Luis Rico, Emma Junaro, Nery Gonzáles, Victoria Sur,  Mayra Gonzáles, Willy Claure, Cubayande, Sonia Pol, Gustavo Orihuela, and Gitte Palson-Juan Carlos Cordero, among others. Her lyrics and melodies carry with them the spirit and energy of a woman who creates from the heart.

‘My poetic works have often come to me in the darkness of sleepless nights, that is to say they’ve sprung from my conscious as well as my subconscious thought, and more or less in an onerous state. Melodies arise in my mind; they enchant me, and I try to memorise them. The majority of these melodies come with a poetic idea, too, so trying to decipher them and put them on paper is an interesting adventure,’ she says.

As Matilde reads from Volumes I and II of her autobiography I’m touched and struck-dumb by her subtle voice. Her readings are full of meaningful pauses and fitting rhythms. Volume I includes poems such as, ‘Siguen los caminos’, which speak of her travels in the years between 1970 and 1973. These writings are full of honesty. Although one can sense a social message in her work, Matilde clarifies that the meanings in her poetry tend to represent something more human. Beauty is an important element for her. ‘Life has a marvelous side to it,’ she says. ‘And it’s down to us to make it more heartfelt, more beautiful.’

Like many writers, Matilde has admired other authors and composers such as Federico García Lorca, César Vallejo, Jaime Mendoza, Ricardo Jaimes Freyre, Pablo Neruda, Primo Castrillo, Julia Prilutzky and Jaime Saenz. ‘Great authors influence the life of a writer,’ she explains. ‘As a writer, it’s important to familiarise yourself with the life and works of other artists.’

Volume II of her autobiography features some of Matilde’s illustrations from when the artist fought against and beat tuberculosis. During her illness, Matilde discovered that there was a poetic side to pain, and began to express this through drawing. And these simplistic yet powerful drawings complement the texts they accompany.

There were times, however, when Matilde  did not write, sometimes for as long as two years. During one of those periods, her husband bought her a typewriter and, although Matilde did not know how to use it at first, it helped her to write again. ‘After not being able to create for that long,’ she remembers, ‘I started to do it on the typewriter. Using a machine didn’t disrupt my artistic energy. I remember using it to write a poem that flowed from me as though from ink onto paper.’

Matilde Casazola’s lifelong career as an artist has made her a female icon of Bolivian culture. In 2016, she received the National Culture Award. Today, she is working on a new album of unreleased songs. ‘I’m working from the inside,’ she says. ‘I’m preparing some 12 unedited songs. I’m reworking them for the guitar to make a new album. It’s a project that takes time.’ In the meantime, however, she is already thinking of putting together a third volume of her poetic work. Thank you, Matilde, for your poetry.

Images: Tourism Development Agency ‘La Paz Maravillosa’

Wine, food and tradition on high for the best sommeliers in the world

There are only around 390 sommeliers in the world accredited by the prestigious Institute of Masters of Wine in England. On a recent Sunday night, 11 of them, all of different nationalities, are at the mirador Jacha K’ollo in La Paz, receiving the blessing of an Amauta who shakes maracas and, with a feather, dispels bad energy that could affect these experts. It is an evening full of culture, cuisine and wine for these masters of wine.

In Bolivia for eight days, these wine luminaries have been visiting the vineyards in Tarija and Samaipata, tasting culture and observing tradition, and on this night their journey ends at the seat of the highest government in the world. It is an evening which promises to unite the best wines, produced at heights of 1,700 to 2,900 metres above sea level, with the best dishes prepared with local products harvested from lands higher than 3,600 metres above sea level.

While a fire consumes an offering to Pachamama, the 11 masters of wine raise their hands to receive the cosmic blessing of the Apus and the Achachilas, and of Mama Phaxsi, who shines fully, revealing herself amidst the mountains and joining this unforgettable welcome.

‘We learned about Bolivian wine, about Bolivian culture. We had this amazing ceremony and the view of the city. We felt completely at peace.’

—Master of Wine Cees Van Casteren

After a short 20-minute trip by bus to the city’s Zona Sur, the landscape is transformed. The masters of wine find themselves in the modern Hotel Boutique Atix, surrounded by artwork by Gastón Ugalde. They talk and laugh amongst themselves and enjoy several innovative meals that José Carlos Sanjinés, the hotel restaurant’s young chef, serves them. Quinoa French roast, llama stew and chaqueño carpaccio cured in k’oa are just some of the dishes on offer. Wine educator and writer Cees Van Casteren chooses the wine accompanying each meal to create an unforgettable experience. ‘We learned about Bolivian wine, about Bolivian culture, and the peak has been tonight, because we arrived here and were well received. We had this amazing ceremony and the view of the city. We felt completely at peace,’ says Van Casteren as he savours a potent tarijeño Riesling.

During the toast, Patricia Grossman, the director of the Tourism Development Agency and the event’s hostess, thanks the masters of wine for coming. She emphasises the importance of these movers and shakers in the food and wine industry, who demonstrate by being here that La Paz, City of Wonders, is a vital tourist destination for people from all over the world.

Midnight approaches and the evening comes to a close. With friendly smiles, the renowned sommeliers express their desire to return to La Paz, to uncover more of its marvels. Before retiring, they enjoy a chamomile ice cream flavoured with quirquiña and recall the earlier scene of the setting sun transforming the colours of the Andean mountains.

A spectacular night in tribute to the good nature of the highlands and Bolivia’s mystical scenery.

Within four hours, these luminaries have descended from the heights of the mirador Jacha K’ollo at 4,300 metres above sea level and its panoramic views, full of stars in the sky and sparkling lights on the ground. They have arrived at the modern city that shelters luxurious hotels featuring gourmet dishes to captivate even the most demanding palates in the world. All in all, it is a spectacular night in tribute to the good nature of the highlands and Bolivia’s mystical scenery.