Paraguay · Hand-modeled figurative earthenware talisman
Gallinita de la Suerte (Gallinita Picha'i)
La Gallinita de la Suerte — the little hen of luck, also known affectionately as the gallinita Picha'i and, in fuller form, 'la gallinita de la suerte y del amor' (the little hen of luck and love) — is a hand-modeled clay hen figurine created more than fifty years ago by Itá potter Marciana Rojas, who continued shaping it with what admirers described as enviable skill into her eighties, until her recent death. Cultural manager Ysanne Gayet directly credited the piece with representing Paraguay at international craft fairs for many years, and it has since become, in the words of Paraguayan press, a genuine icon of national craft, reproduced to this day by artisans across multiple localities given its enduring public appeal. Rojas belonged to a celebrated generation of Itá potters that also included Gregoria Benítez and Rosa Brítez — the same Rosa Brítez whose black-clay figurative sculpture is separately documented in this archive — three women whose ceramic work, per Paraguayan cultural writing, allowed each to raise her own children while sustaining Itá's inherited pottery tradition, itself understood as a living continuation of Guaraní clay-working practice.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not Applicable — no UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage inscription exists for this specific craft object at time of writing
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