“The Picaronera” is the traditional “Picarones” maker. Nowadays you can find Picarones in most Peruvian restaurants (yes, we have them in my restaurant). You can find them in fancy establishments, served on beautiful plates, “gourmet style”, also with designs made with the syrup that they come with, nicely and carefully placed in some beautiful structure (even I love that), but the fact of the matter is that the Picarones were created centuries ago and trace their origins back to communities of low social statuses. Picarones started being sold in the streets in little carts, mainly by female street vendors.
(picarones: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picarones).
Today, The Peruvian cuisine is world famous, its taste and enormous variety has taken it to different restaurants around the world. But we can’t forget that a great part of the Peruvian cuisine, like the picarones, was created by people of low income, families that had to figure out how to eat with the little resources they had to survive. Something great came out of those difficult situations, and what started centuries ago has now become an additional reason for Peru being a great country to visit.
Peru is world famous because of its geography and history, but also because of its well known and highly-acclaimed gastronomy, that continues to grow and reinvent itself.
My intention of painting these traditional characters is to illustrate my memories of my my upbringing in Lima, Peru. It is also a way to immortalize these characters, in a sense, a homage to them. Lima is changing, and every day we see less and less of these characters selling their goods in the streets. My goal was to make sure they’re never forgotten. And believe me there are plenty of characters I remember, so I’ll be doing this for a while.
Hugo.
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