2019 Ofrenda
Every year I put up an ofrenda, for the Days of the Dead, Dias de los Muertos. The ofrenda is a home altar, to honor loved ones who have passed, and offers me a wonderful opportunity to display all the Day of the Dead art I collected in Oaxaca Mexico.
In the summer of 2010, I was awarded a Teacher Creativity Fellowship from the Eli Lilly Endowment. I wrote a proposal called “Mexico by HeART” and traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico for the whole summer. I stayed with a Oaxacan family (no English), and went to a local language school in the morning, then in the afternoons and on weekends I set out for villages, markets and cultural and archaeological sites all over the region nearby. I made new friends and navigated a new place, walking and taking public transportation. My language school arranged outings and I did other excursions with fellow Spanish-learners at my school, or other people living in my house. I loved every minute, though it is exhausting to be living a life somewhere strange and using another language. The experience gave me a much better picture of what my ESL students were up against. I kept a visual journal of my daily life, making observations and drawing and collecting ephemera. I was also buying a lot of artesanias, handmade artworks of all kinds, to bring home and use in my teaching and my life. You will see in the very front a small clay moto-taxi filled with crazy skeleton drivers, out for a joy ride. This is my favorite piece. For the years after my fellowship until I retired, I brought these amazing things in to show my classes and we learned about the fiesta and tried our hand at many different art expressions of the Days of the Dead. I will put it all away for another year next week, but it always gives me pleasure and reminds me of a magical summer in Mexico.
The framed skull drawing was made by my daughter, Carla. I do try to keep my Spanish language skills going using Duolingo, a little every day. I discovered this language-learning site in the past year and I highly recommend it. I will forever be grateful to the Lilly Endowment for letting me loose in Oaxaca to learn and enjoy an amazing place.
Autumn Book Shelf
Here are a couple of titles from my fall reading:
The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood; The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak; Oh Pioneers, by Willa Cather; A Better Man, by Louise Penny; and The World That We Knew, by Alice Hoffman.