Starbucks Santa Cruz de la Sierra mug: Discovery Series
A Discovery Series mug for Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia: a bottle-trunked toborochi tree, a bowl of majadito with fried egg and plantain, a sloth, folk dancers, a moustached mask, a violin and a straw hat.
- Series
- Discovery Series
- Place
- Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
- Type
- Mug
- Released
- Not confirmed
- Capacity
- 14 fl ozStarbucks's Discovery Series launch story calls it the 14-ounce ceramic mug
- SKU
- Not confirmed
Sponsored links: we earn a commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The morning the roof came off San Rafael
In 1972 a Swiss Jesuit architect, Hans Roth, flew to Bolivia to restore the mission church of San Rafael, east of Santa Cruz [8]. Another Swiss Jesuit, Martín Schmid, had built it in the 1740s, after teaching the Chiquitano people Baroque music on string instruments he brought from Europe [9]. When Roth reached San Rafael, the parish priest had started taking the roof off that same morning [8]. According to the historian Eckart Kühne, Roth went first to the choir loft and saved two harps, the organ case and, above all, a twelve-drawer cupboard and a leather box full of mission music that Chiquitano choirmasters had kept safe [8]. He carried the pages to Concepción. The job was meant to take six months. It took two years [9]. In 1996 the music of the missions became a festival in the old mission towns, with UNESCO as its sponsor [10]. The violin on the back of the mug, by the handle (14), may stand for the music in that cupboard.
The mug does not label its drawings, so connecting this one to the story is our reading.
What's on the mug
- 1SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA
The place name is printed in red capitals in two lines, SANTA CRUZ over DE LA SIERRA, across a dark green disc in the middle of the front. The trunk of the tree above the disc runs down between SANTA and CRUZ.
- 2Tree with a yellow-green crown above the green disc
A tree with a round crown of yellow-green dots sits on top of the dark green disc, with a thin red trunk dropping into the lettering. Its trunk is straight, unlike the bulging tree on the side. The mug doesn't name it.
- 3Folk dancers in festival dress
A man in a green shirt, pale green trousers, an orange neckerchief and a yellow straw hat dances with one fist raised, with streamers around him; below him a woman in a wide yellow skirt with a red ruffle dances with a man in yellow. They may be dancers of one of the city's traditional dances such as the taquirari or the chovena, but the drawing does not settle which. The mug doesn't name it.[5]
- 4Moustached mask with ribbons
A yellow face mask with a green brow and chin, red cheek circles, a black moustache and red lips, with yellow ribbons trailing from its sides. The mug doesn't name it.
- 5Goblet-shaped vessel with a long pestle
A yellow goblet-shaped vessel on a foot, with a long red-tipped stick leaning out of it, stands beside the final RA. It looks like a tacú, the standing wooden mortar of Santa Cruz, with its pestle: the city's dictionary of local speech calls the tacú a wooden mortar for grinding grains, also used to husk corn and rice [6]. The mug doesn't name it.[6]
- 6Domed clay oven with a fire inside
A small yellow domed oven with a round arched door, a red flame inside and green spots on its walls, sits below the dancers with a curl of green smoke rising beside it. The mug doesn't name it.
- 7Red arcade on a green slope
A long red structure with a row of round arches and a flight of steps runs on a green and yellow slope toward the handle. Its far end is cut off at the handle. The mug doesn't name it.
- 8Toborochi tree (Ceiba speciosa) Side view
A tree with a green trunk that swells into a bottle shape low down and a wide crown of red-orange flowers with yellow centres; a small figure in a cap, a yellow top and red shorts stands beside it, and a white cup with a dark green circle, like a Starbucks cup, sits in its branches. The swollen lower trunk is the mark of the toborochi, a symbol of Santa Cruz planted in its squares. Its flowers are most often pink, though some trees flower white, yellow or lilac [1][2]; the drawing makes them red-orange. The mug doesn't name it.[1][2]
- 9Sloth hanging from a branch Side view
A large sloth in dark green and red hangs by one long arm with its pale yellow face turned to the viewer and its other arm reaching out with long claws. It looks like a three-toed sloth; brown-throated three-toed sloths have been moved from the forest into the gardens and plazas of Santa Cruz, where a local report counted more than 80 in the city and nearby towns [7]. The mug doesn't name it.[7]
- 10Majadito Side view
A round dish with a red patterned rim holds green-flecked rice topped with a fried egg, two strips of fried plantain and white cubes. Rice with egg, yuca and fried plantain is majadito, a dish eaten mainly in the Bolivian departments of Pando, Beni and Santa Cruz [3]; the drawing does not show the urucú colour the rice usually has. The mug doesn't name it.[3]
- 11Hummingbird Side view
A hummingbird with red and orange wings and a green body hovers with its long bill toward the flowering tree. The mug doesn't name the species.
- 12Green landscape with a winding river Side view
A dark green patch of forest with a pale green winding band through it, like a river seen from above; it is also seen at the right edge of the Back photo. The mug doesn't name it.
- 13Woven straw hat with a green band Back view
A wide-brimmed yellow woven hat with a green and white band, drawn next to the violin; its edge also shows at the left of the Side photo. The mug doesn't name it.
- 14Violin and bow Back view
A yellow violin with a red-brown neck, a green pegbox with a red scroll and yellow pegs stands upright with a red bow across it, beside a leafy branch with a red flower. It may refer to the violins of the Jesuit missions of Chiquitos east of the city, where instruments were made for Baroque music. The mug doesn't name it.[4]
- 15Winged angel head Back view
A small yellow face between spread green and red wings, below the violin. It may refer to the angels of the Jesuit mission churches of Chiquitos, east of the city, whose painted walls include angels and whose carvers still make decorative angels [4], but the drawing does not tie it to one church. The mug doesn't name it.[4]
- 16STARBUCKS Back view
The word STARBUCKS is printed vertically in small black capitals just right of the handle.
The photos do not show the bottom of the mug or its base markings. The handle is on the right in the Front photo and on the left in the Back photo, so the narrow strip of the wrap where the handle joins the body, including the right-hand end of the red arcade, is not fully seen.
Collector notes
- This is the Discovery Series mug of the city, with SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA in red over a green disc. The catalog also lists a Been There Santa Cruz de la Sierra mug and Discovery, Been There and Icon mugs for Bolivia; check the printed name and the series box before buying.
- The angel head and the violin are on the Back photo, next to the handle; the sloth and the toborochi tree are on the Side photo, not the front.
- Several items are only hedged here: the dancers, the goblet-shaped vessel, the violin and the angel head fit Santa Cruz traditions, but the mug names none of them, and the moustached mask and red arcade are not identified at all.
Before you buy
The violin, the winged angel head and the straw hat are on the back, next to the handle; the bottle-trunked toborochi tree and the sloth are on the side, and the photos here do not show the base. Look for SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA in red over a dark green disc: a Been There mug of the city and Discovery, Been There and Icon mugs for Bolivia are also listed.
Other Santa Cruz de la Sierra mugs
About the Discovery Series
Sources
- Ceiba speciosa (Wikipedia)
- Toborochi Tree in Bloom, Bolivia (Rove.me)
- Majadito (Wikipedia, Spanish)
- Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos (Wikipedia)
- Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Wikipedia)
- Camba utensils / Utensilios cambas (Bolivian Thoughts)
- En la capital cruceña hay 80 ejemplares: cruzada busca proteger a los osos perezosos (Ecoticias)
- Eckart Kühne, "Las Misiones Jesuíticas de Chiquitos, Patrimonio de la Humanidad: descubrimiento y resurrección", Ciencia y Cultura 48 (Universidad Católica Boliviana, 2022)
- Bernard Wuthrich, "La mission «divine» d'un architecte suisse en Amérique du Sud", Le Temps, 14 August 1999
- Nuestra historia (APAC, organiser of the Festival Misiones de Chiquitos)
