ELIGE MADERA The Artisan from Putaendo Who Has Dedicated His Life to Creating Wooden Puppets In Chile’s Valparaíso region, in the El Llano sector of Putaendo commune, lives a curious artisan who dedicates his life to making wooden puppets. Gerardo Astudillo, a 68-year-old self-taught carpenter for the last 25 years, uses his creativity and imagination to create all kinds of wooden figures. In Chile’s Valparaíso region, in the El Llano sector of Putaendo commune, lives a curious artisan who dedicates his life to making wooden puppets. Gerardo Astudillo, a 68-year-old self-taught carpenter for the last 25 years, uses his creativity and imagination to create all kinds of wooden figures. Doing his part to entertain the local children, he has given life to so many animals including zebras, giraffes, elephants, llamas, dogs, cows and deer. He has even managed to create characters from children's stories such as Pinocchio. Through this quiet and silent profession, Gerardo Astudillo has achieved many of his childhood dreams. He says "I’ve been able to find myself and I’ve achieved dreams I had as a kid. I have my puppet workshop; I live with my bees; I’ve been able to travel a lot and I’ve met many people and many artists that I feel I have a great brotherhood with." The artisan's childhood and adolescence weren’t easy; at the age of 11, he lost his parents and he couldn’t continue his education. Since then, he’s dedicated himself to various activities in order to get ahead: he worked as an assistant to an accountant and then as mechanic and a cab driver until wood came into his life and he decided to dedicate himself completely to the making of puppets, in a space from Los Graneros del Alba, an organization of artisans in Parque O'Higgins. Today he can say that he has his own workshop, granted to him last year through the Institute of Agricultural Development (Indap) as a user of the Local Development Program of San Felipe (Prodesal). Astudillo not only makes a living from his handicrafts, but he’s also a beekeeper and a subsistence farmer (growing beans, peas and onions), as well as raising Araucana chickens. All these skills helped him to have his own workshop. Astudillo says: "I've had this hobby since I was a kid. I liked to make horses, swings and wooden trucks… Then plastic toys appeared, which were more innovative, with beautiful colors and much cheaper, and they began to replace the wooden ones. I was left unable to do my work until a friend who came from France, in the mid 90's, saw my workshop and suggested I make puppets. I listened to him and that's what I’ve been doing ever since." One of the best times for Astudillo is the Christmas season, when his wooden art tends to sell much more, as children come to the Christmas fairs, see his work and fall in love. But he also actively participates in many other activities where he can exhibit his work.