With traditional music playing in the background, Uruguayan students explained the crafts and culture of their country to others at the Memorial Union on Monday.

“The craft display is very important to show the culture,” said Lucia Gutierrez, graduate student in agronomy.

The display, held in the Gold Room in the Memorial Union, was the first event of “Semana Criolla,” a celebration of Uruguayan culture. Free activities, including a large craft display on Thursday, will happen throughout the week. The events are sponsored by International Education Services through a Culture Corps Grant and Mat‚s, the Argentinean and Uruguayan Student Association.

Many people don’t know much, if anything, about Uruguay, Gutierrez said.

“It’s not very common for people to know where Uruguay is,” she said, pointing it out on a map.

Uruguay is a small country located on the Atlantic coast bordering Brazil to the north and Argentina to the west. It is about the size of the state of Washington and has a population slightly larger than Iowa, just more than 3 million.

Monica Barbazan, graduate student in agronomy from Uruguay, said the country’s landscape is similar to Iowa’s. The climate is also similar, except Uruguay does not have winter like Iowa because of the ocean, she said.

“We miss the beaches,” she said.

A lack of beaches is not the only difference between the South American country and the Midwest. Gutierrez said behavior and culture were more different than she had expected.

“Even if you understand what they are saying, you may not understand the context,” she said.

Even so, Gutierrez said she likes it in Ames.

“[Ames] is a great opportunity to open your mind [and] have new friends,” she said.

One craft featured at the display Monday was the mat‚, a traditional cup created from a gourd and used when consuming the beverage of the same name.

Mat‚ is a beverage similar to tea made from the herb Yerba, which is dried and packed before being sold. The herb is packed into the mat‚, and hot water is poured onto it. A silver pipe-like straw called a bombilla is used to break the packed Yerba apart. The resulting mixture is sucked through the bombilla.

“Some think it’s a drug, but it’s not,” Gutierrez said.

Many Uruguayans take their mat‚ everywhere with them, making a matera a common sight, Gutierrez said. A matera is a leather case used to tote mat‚ supplies: a thermos of hot water, package of yerba and the mat‚.

Along with mat‚, Uruguayan culture includes things more familiar to Americans, such as Carnival, the Catholic celebration leading up to Lent and the tango, she said.

“[Uruguay has] the longest Carnival in the world,” Gutierrez said.

The tango is a South American dance, although its country of origin is often debated.

“We fight [with Argentina about] which country [the tango] is from,” Barbazan said.