Honorando nustros amigos fallecidos
Dia de los muertos
What is Día de los Muertos? |
Dia de los muertos is an annual Mexican tradition on Nov.1st where they celebrate the lives of their fallen loved ones. They do this by creating elaborate alters with images, food and objects of the deceased. They also burn dozens of candles to guide the spirits of their loved ones and to keep bad spirits away. Recently, Día de los muertos has also grown into a cultural phenomenon prompting elaborate festivals and parades all around México with the most notable being the parade in my hometown of México City.
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This was a joint project for my 11th grade Spanish and Art class where we studied the history of the holiday and created a narrative piece that complemented an artistic one for our exhibition.
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Project Description |
Spanish Assignment
Mi Proverbio
For the Spanish portion of the project I found and translated a proverb that spoke to me. I was then tasked to create a narrative about what it means to us and why. Because I was in Honors Spanish I wrote the narrative in Spanish the first time and revised it from there, translating it last.
“Hasta en tus tiempos más oscuros, siempre lucha para llegar a la luz.”
He vivido una vida llena de felicidad y oportunidad, pero en mis diecisiete años de vida he vivido tiempos difíciles y deprimentes.
Recientemente, mi familia ha estado en circunstancias fuera de nuestro control que pudieran empujar a quien sea a una depresión y que han afectado mi vida completa, y la vida de mi familia.
Un día, después de recibir noticias devastantes, me deprime por unas semanas. No quería hacer nada, no salía de mi cuarto y me empecé a esconderme de todos. Pasaron meses asi, hasta que mi padre se sentó para hablar conmigo. Me explico la situación con más detalle y dijo algo que nunca me voy a olvidar. “Promete me que, en tú vida, siempre vas a buscar lo positivo; hasta en los momentos más difíciles. lucha y gana.” Esto cambió mi mentalidad completamente. Si mi padre, el que le estaba más afectando, podía estar luchando para tener una perspectiva positiva; yo podia tambien.
Después de hablar con mi padre ese dia, hemos estado trabajando con cada uno para evitar deprimirnos otra vez. Eventualmente, empecé a recuperar mi estado emocional y llegue a aceptar que lo mejor para ayudar mi situación era tener fe en que todo salga bien.
Gracias a mi papá, aprendí que siempre debería luchar y tener fe en lo positivo porque ignorando y islandote de tus problemas nada más los va hacer peor.
“Even in your darkest moments, always fight to reach the light.
I have lived a life full of happiness and opportunity, but in my seventeen years of living I’ve dealt with been through difficult times. Recently, my family has been in situations out of our control that could push anyone into a state of depression and they have affected everything in my life and the lives of my family.
One day, after receiving devastating news, I fell into depression. I didn’t want to do anything, I didn’t leave my room and I isolated myself from everyone. I spent a couple of months like that until my father came into my room to talk to me. He explained the situation in more detail and said something that I will never forget. “Promise me that, in your life, you will always look at the positives in a situation. Even in the worst possible situation.” This changed my perspective on the situation completely. If my father, the one who was most affected by the situation, could be fighting to look at the positives in a situation I could too.
After speaking to my father, I slowly began to get myself back to normal and since then have worked to keep a positive mindset to avoid falling back into depression. Eventually I regained my ordinary emotional state and have begun to accept that the best thing to do when I’m in a situation out of my control is to look at the positives and have hope that everything will be okay.
Thanks to him, I learned to always look at the positives of every situation because ignoring the problem and isolating oneself only makes matters worse.
“Hasta en tus tiempos más oscuros, siempre lucha para llegar a la luz.”
He vivido una vida llena de felicidad y oportunidad, pero en mis diecisiete años de vida he vivido tiempos difíciles y deprimentes.
Recientemente, mi familia ha estado en circunstancias fuera de nuestro control que pudieran empujar a quien sea a una depresión y que han afectado mi vida completa, y la vida de mi familia.
Un día, después de recibir noticias devastantes, me deprime por unas semanas. No quería hacer nada, no salía de mi cuarto y me empecé a esconderme de todos. Pasaron meses asi, hasta que mi padre se sentó para hablar conmigo. Me explico la situación con más detalle y dijo algo que nunca me voy a olvidar. “Promete me que, en tú vida, siempre vas a buscar lo positivo; hasta en los momentos más difíciles. lucha y gana.” Esto cambió mi mentalidad completamente. Si mi padre, el que le estaba más afectando, podía estar luchando para tener una perspectiva positiva; yo podia tambien.
Después de hablar con mi padre ese dia, hemos estado trabajando con cada uno para evitar deprimirnos otra vez. Eventualmente, empecé a recuperar mi estado emocional y llegue a aceptar que lo mejor para ayudar mi situación era tener fe en que todo salga bien.
Gracias a mi papá, aprendí que siempre debería luchar y tener fe en lo positivo porque ignorando y islandote de tus problemas nada más los va hacer peor.
“Even in your darkest moments, always fight to reach the light.
I have lived a life full of happiness and opportunity, but in my seventeen years of living I’ve dealt with been through difficult times. Recently, my family has been in situations out of our control that could push anyone into a state of depression and they have affected everything in my life and the lives of my family.
One day, after receiving devastating news, I fell into depression. I didn’t want to do anything, I didn’t leave my room and I isolated myself from everyone. I spent a couple of months like that until my father came into my room to talk to me. He explained the situation in more detail and said something that I will never forget. “Promise me that, in your life, you will always look at the positives in a situation. Even in the worst possible situation.” This changed my perspective on the situation completely. If my father, the one who was most affected by the situation, could be fighting to look at the positives in a situation I could too.
After speaking to my father, I slowly began to get myself back to normal and since then have worked to keep a positive mindset to avoid falling back into depression. Eventually I regained my ordinary emotional state and have begun to accept that the best thing to do when I’m in a situation out of my control is to look at the positives and have hope that everything will be okay.
Thanks to him, I learned to always look at the positives of every situation because ignoring the problem and isolating oneself only makes matters worse.
Art
For the art section of this project I created a Día de los muertos inspired self portrait that connected to my proverb. Because my proverb involves the idea of overcoming your fears and the adversity around you I decided to create a piece with as much of myself in it while incorporating some of my life struggles. Throughout my face you can see different colors and designs that express my personality. For example my red and black chin representing my favorite soccer team, the Storm Troopers in my glasses and the semi-schizophrenic background representing my active imagination are aspects of my personality. The American and Mexican colors on my forehead however represent my struggle in moving to the United States from México so many years ago and how both places and cultures have helped create the person I am today.
To create the piece I took a picture to base it off of. Using my image I began to draft the face designs by drafting over a printed version of my image. After two drafts I finally had the image I wanted and scanned it onto my computer. Using the scan and a repurposed canvas, I traced the outline of my face, shoulders, hair and glasses onto the canvas and began to draw on the designs. Once I completed the designs I used a wide variety of acrylic paint and began to paint the face and designs. Fished with the face, I began to free draw the background and painted it as I went. Once finished I created a painted frame on the wall of my classroom to showcase it during our exhibition. The whole process took about two and a half weeks and ended up looking like this:
To create the piece I took a picture to base it off of. Using my image I began to draft the face designs by drafting over a printed version of my image. After two drafts I finally had the image I wanted and scanned it onto my computer. Using the scan and a repurposed canvas, I traced the outline of my face, shoulders, hair and glasses onto the canvas and began to draw on the designs. Once I completed the designs I used a wide variety of acrylic paint and began to paint the face and designs. Fished with the face, I began to free draw the background and painted it as I went. Once finished I created a painted frame on the wall of my classroom to showcase it during our exhibition. The whole process took about two and a half weeks and ended up looking like this: