Extra Credit on Mural by Chicana Artist

This mural is located in downtown Santa Ana in a parking lot on 3rd and French streets. This mural attracted me for it is very bright and colorful. The woman in the mural is blowing out birds in between her palms amongst flowers and fields. I looked further into the mural and found out it was created in three months by the Santa Ana artists coalition. This group is a group of ten local chicano artists who put an emphasis on art and education in the community. They state that the mural is "A woman blowing a kiss full of the hopes and dreams of the city's community members right into the streets".  This mural is very beautiful and I'm so happy I ran into it for it makes me happy to see beautiful art in the streets of my home town. "People don't want to see violence they want to see something peaceful, artistic".

Dia De Los Muertos SPARC event Extra Credit Uvina Fall

I had the pleasure to actually participate in the event and the calling of the four region in the ancient Nahua language. Every year I celebrate Dia De Los Muertos by attending the festivities in Santa Ana, so attending and making an altar at the SPARC event was really interesting.  It was really nice to make an altar to commemorate my loved ones that have passed on.  During the event at SPARC we got to perform the ancient ritual to call the four corners and regions, during the ritual we spoke in Nahua and an interesting thing was that we were not able to paint our face for it is not a part of the ritual. Then after the ritual there were all the altars to see and there was pan de muerto and mexican hot chocolate. I loved seeing the very traditional side of Dia De Los Muertos made me happy to connect to my Chicano roots.