MATE

Yerba Mate is a fruit-bearing tree called ilex paraguayensis from the aquifoliaceae family that grows in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. The plant, which is also used in medicine and cosmetics, is commonly called Yerba and there are studies proving that yerba is very beneficial for health.

This tea, discovered by Spanish explorers from the natives in the Paraguay region of South America, was consumed by the natives by chewing or brewing like tea. It was quickly adopted by the Spanish explorers and remained a part of the cultural heritage especially in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, southern and eastern Bolivia, southern Brazil and Chile, especially in the center and south of the country. It is often encountered as a cultural drink specific to the Patagonia region. It is a drink that contains indispensable cultural characteristics of the people living in the rural areas of the region, in villages or on farms. If we were to call it scientific, we could call it tea, but it has become a part of the cultural heritage for the people who came to the Patagonia region and continued their lives after the discovery of South America. The main reason why I say this is that it has a drinking process adorned with its own cultural rules and that the people living in the Patagonia region sometimes seriously value these rules.

Mate, which even had an impact on the beginning of the Triple Alliance War, is a tea that literally passed from the natives to the Spanish. It was first seen by the Spanish colonizers of Paraguay from the country's indigenous people, the Guarani and Tupi, and began to be planted as an industrial plant. During the time of Paraguay's first president, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, the cultivated areas grew. With the economic power provided by Yerba Mate agriculture, it became one of the most powerful countries in South America. This power disturbed the United Kingdom, which had become the most powerful country in the world in the 1840s, and thought that its interests in South America were in danger, and neutralized Paraguay, which was not under its influence, by putting it at war with other countries under its influence. The biggest reason for this was that Carlos Antonio López, who came to power after President Francia, managed the country as if it were his own private farms and closed it to the outside world and international trade. They only exported, manufactured their own rifles and weapons, and did not allow foreign products into their country. The United Kingdom also influenced Argentina, which it invaded in 1806, to join forces with Brazil and Uruguay to declare war on Paraguay. It is also known as the War of the Triple Alliance or the Paraguayan War.

My own personal experience with Mate is perhaps too deep for me to describe in words. I have witnessed many problems being solved while drinking mate tea, I have observed that happiness is shared while drinking mate and that it is a cultural heritage that has become a part of life. I have even heard that some traditional families have created their own rules for drinking mate. Whenever I drink Mate, I always think of the South American natives. They also wanted to solve their problems by talking, maybe they wanted to share their happiness and culture with this tea. Time, conditions and circumstances did not allow this to happen. Maybe they did not have enough time to explain it. As a result, it was a tea left by them, maybe we continue to drink it like them or with a cultural effect specific to us and we remember them.

As can be seen, we can say that Mate, which has an important impact on the history of the continent, is also a part of the cultural life of the people living in rural areas.