I have taken a previous course on the Day of the Dead ritual here at UCLA, and I was delighted to learn about rasquachismo. The aesthetic and concept of being rasquache was introduced to us through an essay in which the author defined how being rasquache or rasquachismo is making something beautiful out of something mundane from our everyday lives as Mexican Americans. We explored this by speaking about our own experiences as Chicanos, and I personally was really able to relate to the topic and concept because my family and I continue to do that even now. Even though my parents have been in the U.S for over 30 years, and my siblings and I were born in the United States, we continue to express rasquachismo whether intentional or not. Currently, we do not have any objects lying around our house that show rasquachismo aesthetic but I will be attaching an image of some art that I created for my Day of the Dead Ritual class in reference to rasquachismo. However, some other examples to show this concept can be found in how my family and I recycle containers of food products or candles and repurpose them into something useful or beautiful. For example, my family buys a lot of candles for La Virgen de Guadalupe, San Juditas, and more, and instead of throwing away the candle vase when the wax finishes, we clean out the vase and use it for flowers or sometimes even as cups (for the thicker diameter candles). Another example of this is how we use butter containers to put soap and water to wash the dishes. So when thinking about domesticana, we can think about rasquachismo but through feminist representation. In the image that I will be including with my post, I made one of the mundane candles of my everyday life into something beautiful once it ran out. To go with the theme of day of the dead, I drew La Catrina on the candle as a santa.
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