Dia de los Muertos workshops: Honoring loved ones with your hands

<a class="highslide" onclick="return vz.expand(this)" href="http://laprensa-sandiego.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/chickens.jpg"><… loading="lazy" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-8845" title="chickens" src="http://laprensa-sandiego.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/chickens-300x13…; alt="" width="300" height="134" srcset="https://dev-laprensa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/chicken… 300w, https://dev-laprensa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/chicken… 432w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"></a>   It seems that folk art with the Made in Mexico legend are going to the afterlife.
   Imagine that some of the skulls and skeletons that you buy for your altar of Day of the Dead this year had the following legend on the bottom: Made in China.
   According to a promoter of Mexican and Latin American folk art in San Diego, it is now very common for items that are apparently made by Mexican hands are actually imported from China.
   “It’s ridiculous,” says Maribel Siman-DeLucca, co-owner of the independent gallery Back from Tomboctou. “But it is increasingly common to see things for Day of the Dead events made in China.”
   To Siman-DeLucca, this represents a threat to the ancient folk art traditions of Mexico and other Latin American countries.
   “We must make an effort to support our traditions,” she says. “There are many things in this changing world that will disappear if everything we buy comes from China.”
   That’s why, as part of the mission of the gallery to keep Latino customs, Back from Tomboctou every fall begins a series of workshops where people create their own skulls, skeletons, piñatas and other items traditional Day of the Dead items.
   This year the workshops, which are open to children and adults, began on October 2nd and continue until the end of the month. Among the crafts that attendees can learn how to create are sugar skulls, papier-mache skulls, papel picado, and, for the more ambitious, a complete altar.
   At the workshops, which cost $15 per person, participants receive all the necessary material to create and decorate their own Calaveras. The technique used is simpler, more user-friendly than the traditional method to make Calveras in southern Mexico, Siman-DeLucca said.
   Instead of using the ceramic or wood mold where calavera-makers pour in the melted sugar, the workshop uses a plastic mold and the sugar, which is not hot, is mixed with merengue, she said.
   “We use this technique so that anybody can make their own Calaveras,” Siman-DeLucca said. “Even children older than 8 years old can learn the process on their own.”
   Siman-DeLucca said that the number of attendees range from 10 to 30 people per workshop.
   “Although we might not be very graceful with our hands, the steps are so simple that anyone can do it,” he adds. “There is much interest in learning how to make the skulls and thus represent the Day of the Dead.”
   Siman-DeLucca, who is originally from El Salvador, founded Tomboctou Back with her Brazilian husband 27 years ago. For 10 years these workshops have taught people how to make their own Day of the Dead crafts. In November, the gallery continues with a series of workshops that focus on Christmas items.
   “These crafts are part of our identity as Latin Americans,” she says.
   Workshops at Back from Tomboctou continue through October 31, when there will be a great celebration of Halloween and Day of the Dead focused on children.
   The event is called Calacathon Festival and will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There the children can decorate plaster skulls and sugar skulls. It costs $ 16 per adult, $ 20 for one adult and one child and $ 10 for each additional child. This event is perfect to attend before going out trick or treating on the streets.
   Back from Tomboctou is located at 3564 Adams Ave, San Diego. Information: (619) 282-8708 or <a href="http://www.backfromtomboctou.com">www.backfromtomboctou.com</a>.

Author

Pablo Jaime Sainz