El Sueño Día De Muertos Assignment

El Sueño's Dia De Muertos event at the Henry Art Gallery was a very beautiful event. At the event, participants made paper flowers to put up in an ofrenda for El Sueño and their logo which was a Chola version of the Virgen de Guadalupe. Alicia Mulliken founded and directs El Sueño. The flowers were beautiful, and they all came together when everyone was doing a small part, it wasn't a job for only one person but it took a team effort. I thought the symbolism of creating an ofrenda for a Chola Virgen de Guadalupe symbolizes all the Chicanas of the world because La Virgen de Guadalupe has such a large impact on Latina's lives, in fact, my middle name is Guadalupe. With this ofrenda for a new version of La Virgen de Guadalupe, we also were making an ofrenda for Chicanas. I thought it was really important how everyone had a part in this and it could be shown how social death can be reversed if as a group/ society we all come together to show genuine care for one another especially marginalized groups. Aside from this, I also felt really connected to the art there. Coming from a community of over 80% Latinos to Seattle where I rarely see my people, this experience was healing, as well as this class full of Latinas. Seeing how Alicia incorporated our culture into her art really inspired me and felt great seeing this represented in an art gallery. It showed how using our cultura to heal is a form of resilience and we must rely on one another. In my midterm quarter assignment, I wrote about resilience and how ofrendas are a powerful tool of resilience against many issues. And this ofrenda proved exactly that. The bottom picture also inspired me because while I'm a few hours away from my family, the quote really stuck out to me because I'm here at the UW thanks to my parents' hard work and I have to remember that while it is hard, the "flowers will bloom."