Origins and Evolution of Mate

Even though mate’s origins are native to South America, Spanish conquistadores grew yerba mate and invented the bombilla. Despite the fact that the name “mati” comes from Quechua, Guarani lenguage, the habit of drinking mate was initiated by the Jesuit evangelical efforts in the 16th century. The Jesuits were Spanish missionaries who came to South America to civilize indigenous people. The Jesuits had taken up the Columbian practice of drinking yerba mate as a tea. Jesuit policy encouraged large-scale yerba plantation in order to make the missions profitable and used the Guaranies to work in the yerba mate plantations. The Jesuits realized of the great economic potential of yerba mate, and from the 1650s to 1670s successfully founded yerba mate plantations at their missions.

The expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish colonies in 1767 ended the cultivation of yerba mate on the mission plantations. When they were expelled from all Spanish dominions their missions on the Parana-Paraguay were abandoned. This caused huge changes in yerba mate production, as the missions were transferred into royal and private hands. Massive exploitation and slavery of the local Guarani population led to their abandonment of the missions, and the temporary end of yerba mate as a plantation crop.

In the XIX, Bonpald, famous French naturist, asked the Paraguay authorities to study the yerba mate and its cultivation. The Paraguayans feared that Bonpald would ruin their successful business of growing yerba mate and they imprisoned him. Eight years passed before Bonpald was rescued by French colleagues. After the Jesuits and Bonpald, the Gaucho ( picture above) handled the cultivation of mate. In the XIX the mate was mostly cultivated in Misiones, Argentina and then spread out to other Argentinean’s and Uruguayan’s states. The gauchos, men living in the countryside of Uruguay and Argentina, brought the mate to the city and elevated the mate as a social practice.