ABSTRACT
This chapter delves into the DNA of Latin American design. In many peripheral countries, objects are not produced with heavy industries or new technologies, but by pure craftsmanship. It’s the gift of doing things by hand that still manages to give a soul to these objects. Energy, numen, aura or what anthropologists call maná.An anonymous force that gives them life and makes them special. A new paradigm that provides good answers to social and environmental problems because the focus is on the person behind the object and in the vulnerability that is inevitably transformed into resilience and resourcefulness. We make with what we have, we embolden and re-signify scarcity, transforming this lack into an opportunity. An emerging ethic that aspires to reclaim techniques and materials that care for the environment and, most importantly, human beings, considering that the goal of all of these projects is local development. Where doing is bound to being. And the most important thing, where the professional’s role acquires greater breadth in the shift from “signature design” to “cultural operator,” where the designer works as an agent of change. Social or authentic innovation. A new paradigm full of fresh, vibrant and sustainable ideas.
