Dia de Los Muertos

Día de los Muertos (aka Day of the Dead) Tradition – Meaning Behind Totes

| Cynthia De La Torre

I have always been fascinated with the Day of the Dead tradition. Not only because it is part of my culture, but because of what it represents.

One fo my favorite things about the Mexican culture is the belief in the after life. Whenever we would visit family members in Mexico or speak with my great grandmother or grandmother about what it was like to live in Mexico, undoubtedly, there would always be ghost stories scattered in between the stories they told about growing up. Ghost stories were such a large part of what it meant to grow up in Mexico.

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90 Day Art Challenge Paper Art Update (Feb 10 – 23)

| Cynthia De La Torre

The previous two weeks were so hectic, that I did not have a chance to complete the challenge every day, but I did make up the time that I was missing by making other days longer. I was also not able to post the update blog (that’s why it’s a week late). But things are back on track.

For the last two weeks, I continued working on the Day of the Dead themed shadow box. I continued trying to use more layers on the different characters in order to make them more three-dimensional and to make them more like real people look (but in paper form). I am so pleased with the results.

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Book of the Month – The Tequila Worm by Viola Canales

| Cynthia De La Torre

Summary – The Tequila Worm is a compilation of stories told from the perspective of a young Mexican-American girl named Sofía. Sofía lives in the barrio with family and friends who value their Mexican traditions and try to instill that same love to their kids.

Sofía must learn to find her own voice and her own path, while at the same time, holding on to the traditions that have shaped who she is. She finds merging these two worlds especially difficult when she receives a scholarship to a prestigious high school located about 350 miles away from home.

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