Day of the Dead Altar- Honoring Cesar Chavez
Overview:
For a final project to wrap up the semester, we were tasked with creating any product we wanted that tied food justice, and our country together. My group and I, studying Mexico and all about its culture decided to create a Day of the Dead Altar which is a huge part of the Day of the Dead celebration that happens annually in Mexico to honor one of the most impactful figures on food justice, Cesar Chavez. Chavez, an American labor leader and co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association which gave tons of workers the rights and working conditions they deserved. We thought he would be the perfect person to research and create our altar around because of all of the work he did for laborers who felt like they couldn't stick up for themselves. Throughout this process we were able to learn a lot about Day of the Dead itself and how big of a deal it is in Mexican culture. Instead of a sad time to mourn the loss of loved ones, during this time (October 31st-November 2nd) people celebrate the lives of their loved ones and welcome them back to the afterlife by creating altars like these. We also learned about influential figures like Cesar Chavez, and Dolores Huerta who were the leading forces in reshaping the ways workers were treated.
Most Useful Article:
This article was the inspiration for my entire research paper. I found it extremely interesting how much of an affect immigrant workers really had on United States farms, that without them farms were forced to move production to Mexico to find work. While conducting a broad search of articles on the New York Times website related to Mexico I came across this one and found interest in the topic of immigration and immigrant labor in Mexico. The piece of information that surprised me the most was the fact that U.S farms WOULD NOT survive without the help of immigrant labor.
New York Times- “Short on Labor, Farmers in U.S. Shift to Mexico."
www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/us/05export.html
Improving Quality of Work:
As we began creating drafts of our altar many changes on the size, and materials were made. When we first started the blueprints for the boxes we were thinking of making them no taller than the height of a regular table. As we started thinking more and more about how we wanted the final altar to look, we realized it needed to be much larger to fit our over the top looking vision. Our final product ended up being over six feet tall. We also initially thought we would cover our cardboard boxes in tablecloths, but as we set that up, it was not to our liking. We then decided to hand paint the top tier, cover the middle tier with colorful tissue paper, and I hand cut and designed unique paper picados. I think the best critique we got was "what more can you do" because it made us think outside of the box and think of other ways to improve and other things to add to the altar (for example extra tissue paper was used to cover one of the boxes and painting the top box). We very easily could have stuck with using three tablecloths, but we chose to put in more work to improve the look of the altar.
Product Reflection:
After finishing our altar I was so proud of the final look. It was colorful, unique and was a giant display that stood out from the crowd. My group and I were able to bring together our skills and knowledge and create a free standing altar after many failed attempts. We started with just four giant sheets of cardboard and were left to create three sturdy boxes which would stand to be six feet tall. With many trial and error we finally got it standing and sturdy to hold all of our decorations. Throughout the project and research we were conducting I was able to learn so much about Mexico's culture and about the annual Day of the Dead celebration. All of my research also helped me compose my research paper all about Mexico and immigrant labor. Then researching just influential figures such as Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and how they completely changed the lives of farm workers and laborers forever. Since researching was required for this project I feel I was able to advance my skills in researching and how to search and find specific articles that will actually help me in my project. Also being forced to work in groups helped me be able to become a leader when needed and when problems arose I was also able to figure out a solution quickly so we could continue on with the project.
If I did this project again:
If I were to do this project again I would definitely have done a lot of things differently. I would like to have taken on a more difficult project. I feel as though some of my skills were not put to use and that I could have been able to complete something of higher quality and be more meaningful. Our final product still turned out beautiful and I was still very much proud of what we had created, but at the end of the day we all could've challenged ourselves more.
Key Moment:
A key moment for me while constructing the final product was realizing that our boxes were just not going to hold. We put everything on top of the boxes and they just collapsed! We then had to scratch those boxes and start from scratch, this time with duct tape instead of packing tape and more precise cuts, but once all of the boxes were reconstructed and sturdy it made for a much better altar that was actually able to hold all of our heavy candles and food.
Our first prototype