El mate, o la cotidianeidad de charis y kairós en la América profunda

Abstract

“Mate,” a Guarani beverage very popular in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Brazil, is much more than a simple infusion: it makes social bonds stronger, it becomes a symbol of community identity, and it works as a metaphor for divine love, or what we can call “grace.” This is because of its resistance, its capacity to build bridges; it feeds, it is lived with intimacy – people share the pipe that is used to drink it – and it also makes fraternity possible. Furthermore, no one can be excluded when one drinks mate, and the rituals associated to it transform every moment of sharing into a “kairós” that can be renewed daily.