Monday, February 10, 2020

Week 5: Ofelia Esparza

I am glad to have a chance to meet Miss Ofelia Esparza through this class. Before I meet her, I have no idea who is Ofelia Esparza and don't know she is the cultural consultant on the Day of the Dead-themed Disney film "Coco". I am a big fan of "Coco" and that was my first time know about Chicano culture through a film. So her appearance in the classroom and her speech made me very excited!

In the class, she mentioned how her experience influenced her art working, as she said, she never meet her great-great-grandmother, but she know her and memorised her by altar making. To be honest, the altar making remind me the Chinese traditional altar making at my family. My grandmother will prepare a big meal to "serve" the relative who had died in a specific day. She will cook a big meal and put some plastic red cordial glass which is fulled of alcohol at every seat, and just setting on the table for three hours for the dead relatives. My grandmother said that they will come back to visit us and enjoy the meal, which is similar with Ofelia Esparza's altar making.

I think every country have different but similar custom to memory their relative and ancestor, but it's all about mourning them, and I admire the artistic way Ofelia Esparza has carried this tradition of Mexico forward.


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