Adelita Stencil

The stencil that I chose for the cover of my sketch book was from a papel picado stencil that I located online. The center figure is a skull that I believe is wearing a sombrero. When I first saw this I thought that I could convert it to be a soldadera. I wanted to be able to add to it some softer features to allude that it is a female Calavera, but that proves to be difficult as eye lashes are rather difficult to add by carving in, and I don’t want to sexualize the skull. In addition I think that the eye sockets are rather odd to keep adding to them anyways. What I now intend to do is add to this stencil more color, I would like to add purple flowers to the hat and maybe include a banner on the very top that would reference Dia De los Muertos or title it Adelita. This has been rather fun as Halloween keeps approaching and there is a lot of inspiration in the Catrina face designs.

The major reason why I chose this graphic is due to the season. This is the time that where we can dress up in our scariest costumes and enjoy a fright or treat. The skull is representative of this time and in particular this graphic allows me to commemorate the period when women were joining the Mexican revolution whether society like it or not and they were taking up arms with the men. This brings to mind a reference of a woman they called La Capitana, who is thought to be an illiterate women of Sonora who became famous for her military prowess during the Mexican revolution. In a way I believe that this papel picado brings center the women who have lived these courageous roles and are admired for it. Not admired for their capabilities to become mothers but their strength to lead men into a revolution for social justice, and to fight with them.