legend of the calafate berry

I grew up in Maine where wild blueberries were typical fruits of summer-time. For one season during my early childhood, my mother did short-term work harvesting low-bush blueberries to earn some extra dollars. My distinct memory from this period was the strong smell of warm berries in the heat and watching Cambodian refugees & other migrant workers with big hats squat in an open field.  They worked all day in the sun, hand-raking tiny berries into multi-gallon plastic buckets. My mother did not last long doing this type of manual labor.  

Later as an adolescent, I remember picking gigantic high-bush blueberries (for our own consumption) at a country family farm, owned by my brother's best friend Nick.

Here at the bottom of the world, berries called calafate are common in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Since living aboard Anasazi Girl the last two years on Navarino Island, we have seen all the stages of development of this beautiful & tasty fruit.

First ripe Calafate berries of the summer season.
Calafate / Magellan Barberry / Berberis microphylla.
Isla Navarino - CHILE / XII Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena (enero de 2016)

My kids love harvesting the berries despite the challenge of getting fingers pricked and scratched by the bush's spiny thorns. The fruit itself looks very much like a blueberry, but inside is a deep dark purple-blue (not white & spongy like a Maine blueberry). Eating a mouthful will naturally dye your lips and tongue. The berries have tiny purple-black seeds, which the kids have been saving to make a rattle for their new baby sister (due to arrive at the end of March).

Tormentina with a handfull of ripe berries and pricked finger-tips.
Calafate / Magellan Barberry / Berberis microphylla.
Isla Navarino - CHILE / XII Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena (enero de 2016)

Over the years we have always heard from locals in Southern Chile and Argentina that if you eat a calafate berry from this region, that you are destined to return again and again.The myth always seemed to me like a touristic catch phrase, used to sell a calafate sour, calafate ice cream, or a jar of jam. But...we did try the berries and happen to not only find them delicious, but for some reason we have returned again and again with our kids to these Austral regions of South America.

There are a couple of legends we have found that involve the calafate:

The first is the story of an eldery Tehulche woman. (The Tehulche - also known as Aónikenk - were the indigenous, nomadic tribe of the pampas of Southern Argentina, particularly in the Chubut & Santa Cruz Province. They are famous for leaving behind caves filled with painted hands.) One winter the elderly woman realizes she is too old and weak to travel. She is left behind by her tribe to endure the season alone.  

She does not die, but instead is magically transformed into a calafate bush. The bush serves that winter as a shelter for the birds, protecting them from the cold and icy wind. Then in the autumn, the bush bore fruit which kept the birds fed. Thus the birds returned to the magical calafate bush for food & shelter year after year.

 Calafate / Magellan Barberry / Berberis microphylla.
Isla Navarino - CHILE / XII Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena (diciembre de 2016)

The second legend has a few variations, but essentially, the story involves the daughter of an Aónikenk Chieftan named Calafate who was incredibly beautiful – with dark hair & intense, unusually golden eyes. The Chieftan was very proud and protective of his daughter.

One day Calafate goes for a walk alone on the seashore. By chance, she meets a handsome young Selk'nam warrior. (The Selk’nam people – also called the Ona or Onawa – were the indigenous & nomadic tribe who were thought to have immigrated by canoe across the Straits of Magellan from the mainland to Tierra del Fuego. They are well documented – photographically – by Martin Gusinde in their every-day lives as well as in their rites of passage ceremonial paints. In this particular legend, they are described as the enemy tribe of the Aónikenk.)

Calafate and the Selk’nam warrior immediately fall in love, despite knowing their respective tribes will not approve of their union.Their love is so deep that they continue to meet and make a plan to marry in secret.

The Chieftan finds out about the lovers and their plan to elope. He is certain that an evil spirit named Gualicho has possessed his daughter. He cannot otherwise understand why his daughter would choose a union with his enemies. He asks a Shaman to help him prevent his daughter's escape. The Shaman casts a spell on Calafate, turning her into the calafate bush.

When the time comes for the two to elope, the young Selk'nam searches vain for his lover and cannot find her anywhere.  He finds out that she has been transformed, covered with sharp thorns, allowing him to  look upon her, but preventing him from ever touching her. He stares at her golden flowers, heart-broken, remembering the intensity of her eyes, and eventually he dies of grief.

The Shaman feels so remorseful for the pain that he causes the young lovers that he decides to turn the yellow flowers into the sweet purple calafate berries, which represent the young man's heart. So it is said that anyone who eats the calafate berry falls under the spell of the young couple, and are mysteriously drawn to return again and again to that place.

Calafate / Magellan Barberry / Berberis microphylla.
Isla Navarino - CHILE / XII Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena (enero de 2016)

Calafate / Magellan Barberry / Berberis microphylla.
Isla Navarino - CHILE / XII Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena (enero de 2016)

Calafate / Magellan Barberry / Berberis microphylla.
Isla Navarino - CHILE / XII Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena (noviembre de 2015

Calafate / Magellan Barberry / Berberis microphylla.
Isla Navarino - CHILE / XII Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena (noviembre de 2015)

Maund, B., Henslow, J.S., The botanist, vol. 1: t. 42 (1836)