Weaving a Family Tradition: Basket Making with Pancho Carbajal

By Leah Leonard, a Sustainable Tourism Volunteer Awamaki’s basket weaving teacher, Francisco “Pancho” Carbajal, has been making baskets since he was 12 years old. He learned from his father, Lucio Carbajal, a well-respected Ollantino who was considered a jack-of-all-trades. When he wasn’t teaching his five sons how to make baskets, he filled his days by playing the violin, delivering babies, cutting hair at a local peluquería, crafting leather horse muzzles, and even predicting the future with coca leaves! Though Pancho didn’t particularly like making the laborious baskets when he was younger, he now continues in his father’s footsteps and teaches...