Do you want to drink a 'Mate'?

Mate is an infusion, containing stimulants including caffeine, prepared by steeping dried leaves of yerba mate (Spanish) in hot water. It is the national drink in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay and a common social practice in parts of Brazil, Chile, eastern Bolivia, Lebanon, and Syria.

Mate is served with a metal straw from a shared hollow calabash gourd.

The straw is called a bombilla in Latin AmericanSpanish .

The gourd is known as a mate.

Even if the water comes in a very modern thermos, the infusion is traditionally drunk from mates.

However, "tea-bag" type infusions of mate (mate cocido) have been on the market in Argentina for many years.

As with other brewed herbs, yerba mate leaves are dried, chopped, and ground into a powdery mixture called yerba. The bombilla acts as both a straw and a sieve. The submerged end is flared, with small holes or slots that allow the brewed liquid in, but block the chunky matter that makes up much of the mixture.

Drinking

Mate is traditionally drunk in a particular social setting, such as family gatherings or with friends. One person (known in Spanish as the cebador) assumes the task of server. Typically, the cebador fills the gourd and drinks the mate completely to ensure that it is free of particulate matter and of good quality.

The cebador subsequently refills the gourd and passes it to the next drinker who likewise drinks it all, without thanking the server. The ritual proceeds around the circle in this fashion until the mate becomes lavado ("washed out" or "flat"), typically after the gourd has been filled about ten times or more depending on the yerba used (well-aged yerba mate is typically more potent, and therefore provides a greater number of refills) and the ability of the cebador. When one has had his fill of mate, he or she politely thanks the cebador passing the mate back at the same time.

The drink has a pungent taste like a cross between green tea and coffee, with hints of tobacco and oak. Some drinkers like to add sugar , creating mate dulce (sweet mate), instead of sugarless mate amargo (bitter mate). It is considered bad for the gourd (especially for the natural (squash or wood) ones) to be used for mate dulce so it is normal for households with drinkers of both kinds to have two separate gourds.

Traditionally, natural gourds are used, though wood vessels, bamboo tubes and gourd-shaped mates, made of ceramic or metal (stainless steel or even silver) are also common. Gourds are commonly decorated with silver, sporting decorative or heraldic designs with floral motifs.

Both the wood vessels and the gourds must undergo curing to get a better taste before being used for the first time and to ensure the long life of the gourd. Typically, to cure a gourd, the inside is first scraped with the tip of a bombilla to remove loose gourd particles. Mate herb and hot water is added next, and the mixture poured into the gourd. The mixture is left to sit overnight and the water is topped off periodically through the next 24 hours as the gourd absorbs the water. Finally the gourd is scraped out, emptied, and put in sunlight until completely dry.

It is common for a black mold to grow inside the gourd when it is stored. Some people will clean this out, others consider it an enhancement to the mate flavor.

Spanish Language History

THE EVOLUTION OF SPANISH

Spanish is a Romance language , meaning that it is a descendant from Latin, the official language of the Roman Empire and a branch of the Indo-European.

Like the other Romance languages, Spanish is derived from Vulgar Latin, the cluster of dialects spoken by legionaries, traders, farmers and the like.

Originally from Castilla in the northern area of Spain, it evolved as a Latin dialect along the Cantabria, Burgos and La Rioja provinces of Northern Spain. From there, its use gradually spread inside the Kingdom of Castile, where it devoloped and eventually became the principal language of the government and trade. It was later brought to the Americas and other parts of the world in the last five centuries by Spanish explorers and colonists.

Spanish is the native language of 332 million people in the world. In addition to Spain, Spanish is the official language of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. It is also widely spoken in other nations including Canada, Morocco, the Philippines, and the United States, where it is spoken as a second language by 22 million people.

Spanish is also one of six official working languages of the United Nations. The language of Cervantes, Picasso and García Marquez is already the second world language as a vehicle of international communication and the third as an international language of politics, economics and culture.

SPANISH TODAY

In 1713, the Real Academia Española was founded and since then it has been establishing authoritative criteria for the sanctioning of neologisms and the incorporation of international words.

In March 2006 the king and queen of Spain and the president of The Real Academia Espanola attended The xiii Spanish Language Congress in Colombia where representatives from the Spanish speaking counties gathered to write the new Panhispanic Grammar Book, that is to say the Latinamerican Grammar book, as the language has evolved significantly from its continental origin.

Names given to the Spanish language: Español o Castellano?

Spanish people tend to call this language español when contrasting it with languages of foreign states, such as French and English, but call it castellano, i.e. Castilian, the language of the Castile region, when contrasting it with other languages of Spain(such as Galician, Basque, and Catalan). In this manner, the Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the official language of the whole State, opposed to las demás lenguas españolas.

El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. (…) Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas…

Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. (…) The other Spanish languages shall also be official in the respective Autonomous Communities…

Some Spanish speakers consider castellano a generic term with no political or ideological links.

Spanish or Castellano?

Here are two main names given to the Spanish language: 'Spanish' and 'Castilian'. Linguistically speaking, 'Castilian' means 'Spanish', as it is the medieval Castilian language that spread across Spain and became the national language known virtually always as 'Spanish', in English. But in Spanish itself, the term castellano (Castilian) is often used to refer to the language, at the expense of the term español (Spanish.) It seems that awareness of the term 'Castilian' is growing in English, and even more so in French. To understand how two terms can refer to the same language, imagine that the English language was sometimes called 'English' after the historical nation whose language it is, but also sometimes 'British' after the modern state of which it is the official language. Imagine then that Britain had an empire of colonies in the Americas. How would they then refer to the language? What about the speakers of Welsh and other non-English languages spoken in Britain? This is almost exactly the situation with Spain and its historical heart, Castile (Castilla.)

Spaniards tend to call this language español (Spanish) when contrasting it to languages of other states (e.g. in a list such as francés, inglés, chino y español) but castellano (Castilian) when contrasting it with other regional languages of Spain (e.g. gallego, vasco, catalán/valenciano y castellano, as in the Spanish Constitution of 1978).
The official Real Academia Española used castellano from the 18th century, but from 1923 its dictionary and grammar are de la lengua española. However, the Academy's use of one term or the other should not be taken to be a condemnation of the other.

The term castellano is occasionally used to imply more of a standard form than español does. For example, if someone mispronounces a word, they might be told ¡hable castellano!, i.e. 'Speak Castilian!', 'Speak properly!'. However, this nuance is not to be exaggerated, as it is perfectly possible that the term español or even cristiano ('Christian') could be used instead. Moreover, the term castellano is also commonly and correctly used to refer to dialects of Spanish that deviate dramatically from the standard.

In practice, the use of one term or the other tends to be a matter of local customs, rather than deep philosophical, sociological and political thought on the individual level. Some constitutions avoid the issue by talking about "the national language."


Countries or regions where castellano ('Castilian') is generally preferred:
• Argentina
• Uruguay
• Paraguay
• Bolivia
• Ecuador
• Venezuela

Countries or regions where there is generally oscillation between the two:
• Chile: The media uses the word español and the school subject is castellano.

Countries or regions where español ('Spanish') is generally preferred:
• Colombia
• Dominican Republic
• Mexico
• Peru (Both words)