Drinking Mate

A native Argentine woman drinks mate after a long day. In Argentina, we drink mate from morning to night, filling the gourd with mate leaves, adding hot water throughout the day. The drink is sipped through a metal straw with holes at the bottom for filtering the leaves. I was drawn to photograph Eusebia, who I met 20 years ago while staying at an hacienda. It took a while to develop my painting skills to do honor to her expressive, careworn face..