Guatemalan Chinchines or Sonajas

The sonajas or maracas take on a different name in Guatemala, they are called chinchines; an onomatopoeia (onomatopeya in Spanish). Generally, Guatemalan chinchines are found painted black with incisions made to expose the natural color with patterns similar to what you may find in textiles, but more recently chinchines can be found of all colors.

¡Viva el arcoiris!

If you have followed, for at least a while, the previous 995 daily pages, you might have come to realized that Guatemalans don’t like mellow neutral colors like beige or gray. On the contrary, the color palette found in all things Guatemalan is an intense and rich rainbow, with so many complementary and contrasting hues that anyone with a little background in plastic arts may find impossible to combine in a single piece. But leave it the Amerindian indigenous people of Guatemala to show you how.

Oh how I wish I could do the same! 🙁

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