Tejido de curagua; chinchorro de curagua (the emblematic finished hammock)
A gendered, two-stage fiber craft centered on Aguasay, Monagas state, in which curagua — a bromeliad plant of Amazonian origin requiring a minimum of one year to reach harvest — is cultivated and processed by men into a strong, soft white fiber, which women then spin and hand-weave into hammocks (the region's emblematic product), tablecloths, and cushions. Inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2015, the tradition is documented through named practitioners spanning the full production chain, from the grower who first introduced cultivated plant stock to Aguasay, through the fiber-bundle sellers, to master weaver Ramona Romero, a two-time UNESCO Excellence Award recipient with over 50 years in the craft.
Risk level: Endangered · Los Conocimientos y Técnicas Tradicionales Vinculados al Cultivo y Procesamiento de la Curagua en Venezuela were inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on 2 December 2015 (10.COM), Venezuela's fourth ICH inscription at the time, following the Diablos Danzantes de Corpus Christi (2012), the Parranda de San Pedro de Guarenas y Guatire (2013), and the oral tradition of the Mapoyo people (2014, inscribed on the Urgent Safeguarding List)
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