If you live in a remote rural village. If you have a cash-strapped budget. If you plant and harvest your own rice for family consumption. If you don’t have a large family to help to the chores of the home; then you have no alternative but to use a “pilón” or rice pounder if you want to calm your hunger.
In some small villages in the countryside, farmers called “campesinos” still remove the chaff from clusters of rice using a wooded instrument called “pilón de arróz”—rice pounder. A rice pounder is a solid piece of wood hollowed in the middle where the clusters of rice are placed and a woman or child uses a pounder to manually pound, and pound and pound the rice until the chaff is totally removed. Some of these peasants are so skilled in the use of a pilón, that they can do it with only one hand. The rice pounder is used in several African countries and in Southeast Asia as well.
Below are a couple of pictures of a typical Panamanian pilón still used in some back road villages of the countryside. Here we go.
Lingua Franca 
I grew up on the old family farm in North Texas. My grandmother made lye soap in a big black pot. They made do with what they had. We were potato people. I really wasn’t around rice until I moved to Houston. Now I eat about the same amount of rice as I do potatoes.
Hello Old Timer:
Now that you have lived in Panama, you already know how much rice means to us. If there’s no rice in a meal, you haven’t eaten.
We still eat potatoes, but they are not essential. I understand potatoes are a must in Ireland.
Best Regards,
Omar.-
Hello Omar,
This picture reminds me of my great grandmother who, once upon a time, gave my older sister and I this command:
¡Niñas, a pilar! (in that case, corn…)
As children, we didn´t have enough energies to lift a pilón’s pounder (Spanish, “hand”). So, my sister raised her eyebrows and we ran away laughing…
No doubt the story generated by that picture has made my day!
Thank you,
Hello Hilda:
I can understand your reaction. Those pounders sure look big and intimidating. My wife told me she used to “pound the grain” when she was a child. Most of the tough work at home was performed by women; men were off to the fields at daybreak and returned at dusk.
I’m glad you are enjoying the stories and pictures.
Bye,
Omar.-