This year, the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas, is presenting an exhibit titled “Love to Death: Day of the Dead Community Altars.”
CREDIT: Image by Araceli Cruz
It features ofrendas (altars) created by members of the Austin community, and also some from its own permanent collection.
The Mexic-Arte Museum has been celebrating Día de los Muertos for the past 34 years.
CREDIT: Image by Araceli Cruz
The show features traditional altars and themed altars.
The museum also has a special exhibit on Frida Kahlo, so naturally, they have an altar just for her.
CREDIT: Image by Araceli Cruz
The Frida Kahlo exhibit (separate from the Day of the Dead exhibit) is called: “Diego & Frida: A Smile in the Middle of the Way.”
This altar celebrates the life of deceased pets.
CREDIT: Image by Araceli Cruz
I couldn’t help but think of the film “All Dogs Go to Heaven.” The uniqueness of this ofrenda is so cute, especially because each pet was constructed out of paper mache.
There’s also an altar paying tribute to street artists.
CREDIT: Image by Araceli Cruz
What’s most amazing about Day of the Dead is that there’s no wrong way to build an altar, and this one shows that. The street art itself is already stunning, so the mixture of tokens (like the ping pong paddles and journals) is what makes it a unique altar.
But there was one amazing altar that left me in tears. It’s called “Selena Forever,” and I almost fainted when I saw it.
Image by Araceli Cruz
Image by Araceli Cruz
Image by Araceli Cruz
Image by Araceli Cruz
Image by Araceli Cruz
Image by Araceli Cruz
Image by Araceli Cruz
Image by Araceli Cruz
The altar was created by Stephanie Sandoval, and the details show she is a true fan. She includes everything Selena loved, such as pizza, Coca-Cola, and Doritos. It also features her MAC lipstick, a setlist from her concert, and a sewing machine.
Here’s the altar in all its glory.
The exhibit is on display through November 26, 2017.
Frida Kahlo is the most recognizable Mexican painter of the past century. That bold brow, traditional Mexican garb and piercing stare are undeniably Frida in a way that makes her completely unique among other artists. She’s also one of the most widely portrayed Mexican figures of all time. Her image adorns everything from tee-shirts and jewelry to murals and makeup. Her image is so recognizable that flower crowns, red lipstick, and ungroomed eyebrows will forever have an association with the artist.
To add to the Frida imagery in our world, a new mural featuring the famous artista has just been unveiled in Mexico and she has never looked better.
Painted by Irish artist Fin DAC, the mural portrays Frida Kahlo in bold primary colors and traditional Mexican dress.
Twitter / @la_linea
The artwork is named “Magdalena” and is located in Guadalajara — the capital of Jalisco. In the mural, Frida is represented with a full-body image, hands placed together in front of her as if in prayer. Vibrant flowers and butterflies adorn her like a crown in true Frida fashion.
She wears a huipil (a multicolored blouse traditionally found in southern Mexico), a pink shawl and a long blue skirt accentuated with various-sized skulls. The ten-story mural also depicts the artist with a blue mask across her eyes. This is artist Fin DAC’s signature that he adds to all of his pieces and works to enhance the dark stare that Frida gives viewers.
The artist responsible for this mural has lots of experience creating urban art in Latin America.
Twitter / @BrasilEFE
Between 2012 and 2017, Fin DAC visited Latin America several times. He created six murals total in Colombia and Brazil during that time. This is his first time creating art in Mexico. The artistic is known for his style — called “Urban Aesthetics” — and has made art on the streets of five different continents. His images also include women dressed in the native costume of their countries and are finished with his signature mask.
The artist explained the reasoning for his attention to national traditions to Mexanist. He said:
“No matter the culture and nationality for me, I am more interested in the type of clothing typical of each place, each country and each place has something to offer and show in this sense.”
For Fin DAC, the choice to depict Frida on this wall was an easy one. The artist explained that her own artwork always sought to exalt the women it depicted — much like his own. Frida’s own famous way of dressing always incorporated traditional Mexican costuming too so the decision to paint the famous Mexican for this piece was “almost obvious” to the painter.
The artist was invited to create this mural as part of celebrations for the Despertares Impulsa dance festival.
Instagram / @findac
Created by famous Mexican dancer, Isaac Hernández, the Despertares Impulsa dance festival began as a way to gather and stimulate the creative industry in Mexico. With the backing of the Mexican National Institute of Fine Arts, the event offers performances, workshops, lectures, master classes and meet and greets. The festival also offers opportunities for free auditions to different international dance companies.
Fin DAC was invited to create this piece by the director of Despertares Impulsa. The image was painted on a wall facing Chapultepec Avenue — a busy street that receives lots of traffic in the urban area. Fin DAC choose this location purposefully for this reason.
“When you see a spectacular advertising pole,” he said, “You see an image trying to sell you something you don’t need, but it makes you feel like you want it. (On the other hand) when you see a piece of art on the street it brings you a moment of happiness and peace, nothing from the advertising you see will make you happy, but art can definitely do it.
The mural was officially unveiled on July 15th, 2019 as part of the festival’s celebrations.
Twitter / @findac
The unveiling comes at a time of year significant to Frida fans. July 6th was the 112th anniversary of the artist’s birth. The 65th anniversary of her passing also happened this past month on the 13th of July. As such, this beautiful mural is an appropriate gift to honor the late Mexican artist.
After hundreds of organized protests around the country, we would hope the Trump administration would send someone to a detention center in a sincere effort to address the problem. Instead, Vice President Mike Pence was sent in a political move to combat the assertions of Democratic Congress members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib from their visit.
Reporters were allowed into the detention facility for 90 precious seconds. Pence wasn’t able to maintain his initial statement once he saw the unsanitary conditions migrants were kept in.
“What people are going to see is not the situation many Democrats have described,” Pence told reporters on Thursday.
Credit: @VP / Twitter
His full statement was actually this: “What people are going to see is not the situation many Democrats have described, but actually a situation where our CBP agents are providing humanitarian care, health care, shelter, food, sustenance in a way that would make the American people proud.
But afterward, he said, “I was not surprised by what I saw. I knew we’d see a system that was overwhelmed.”
Credit: @jdawsey1 / Twitter
While he wasn’t able to reiterate that the conditions would “make the American people proud,” or offer any hope that he or his administration would do anything about it, he did try to blame Democrats for the conditions.
“The DHS facility in McAllen is a prime example of why we need to secure our borders,” he tweeted out after the visit. “The facility is overcrowded and our system is overwhelmed. It is time for Democrats in Congress to step up, do their jobs, and end this crisis.”
White House pool reporter Josh Dawsey was only allowed in for 90 seconds, and this is what he saw.
Credit: @jdawsey1 / Twitter
Dawsey said “the cages were so crowded that it would have been impossible for all of the men to lie on the concrete. There were 384 single men in the portal who allegedly crossed the border illegally. There were no mats or pillows—some of the men were sleeping on concrete.”
Agents were seen guarding the cages wearing face masks.
Credit: @jdawsey1 / Twitter
That’s likely because Dawsey reports that “the stench was overwhelming.” After talking with some of the people, they told him that they hadn’t showered in weeks. They wanted toothbrushes and food. In response, CBP said, “They were fed regularly, could brush daily & recently got access to shower.” Dawsey followed that up with asserting that “many hadn’t [showered] for 10-20 days.”
Reporters didn’t feel any air conditioning in a room where the outside temperature was already 97°F.
Credit: @passantino / Twitter
CBP said it was air-conditioned but Dawsey reports that the “heat was sweltering.” The facility doesn’t have a shower, but CBP says they all showered the day before “in an outdoor trailer.” What CBP told reporters directly contradicts much of what the migrants themselves had a chance to report to the outside world.
For example, CBP told reporters that nobody had been there longer than 32 days, but this man told reporters he had been there for 40 days.
Credit: @jdawsey1 / Twitter
He wasn’t the only one who told reporters that they’d been there longer. The migrants told reporters they wanted to brush their teeth and were hungry. CBP told reporters they brush their teeth daily and are fed three times a day. In Dawsey’s own words, the “stench was horrendous. CPB said it was cleaned 3x a day.”
This is the scene that Vice President Pence saw.
Credit: @jdawsey1 / Twitter
When migrants told reporters they were thirsty, CBP said the water was outside the fence and that they could leave the barrier to get water after the press left.
But this is the image he tweeted out to his followers.
Credit: @VP / Twitter
Conveniently, this image seems to have chairs. What Pence was directly staring at much of the time was human beings sleeping on concrete, in an environment so foul CBP agents were wearing face masks.
Dawsey reported that the children’s facility was “new and relatively clean and empty.”
Credit: @VP / Twitter
“There were cots & medical supplies & snacks,” Dawsey tweeted. “Children watched TV and told Pence through translator they were being taken care of. But at least two said they’d walked for months to get here.”
Is America proud yet?
@jdawsey1 / Twitter
The people in this image allegedly crossed the border illegally. We don’t know if they claimed asylum. We don’t know if these are people who have broken the law because they are effectively jailed without trial, in conditions worse than jail.
Trump is the man behind it all. It was he who decided to enact a policy that, instead of allowing asylum seekers to set up roots in American society while awaiting trial, to detain them in facilities that are overcrowded with a judicial system that is backlogged.
Watch the video below of migrants letting reporters know what has happened to them in detention.
New video shows severe overcrowding of men in cages at Texas detainment facility during VP Pence's visit Friday.
