Cross-divisional Creations Celebrate Culture and Día de Muertos Traditions

Our fourth grade students recently visited their sixth grade peers at our 181 Lincoln Place BetaLab to participate in a Día de Muertos workshop on tapetes, the art of ephemeral rugs. The workshop was led by Espejo Escénico, a women lead group of artists with a background of music and theater from Oaxaca, Mexico. Their mission is to use art as a way to preserve their cultural heritage, and to promote creativity. 

Students learned about the significance of this indigenous tradition from Oaxaca, where people create rugs with flowers, seeds, colored sawdust, and other natural materials to place on tombs in cemeteries, as well as in the street and in houses during the Día de Muertos festivities to pay their respects to those who have passed. The rugs are ephemeral because they symbolize a farewell to people who have passed and then they are destroyed at the end of the celebration.

In groups, students worked side-by-side to design and create their tapetes, each bringing their own unique touch to the artwork. Students interacted with the materials and each other with care, honoring this beautiful tradition. While the students began to destroy the temporary rugs, the Espejo Escénico group performed two traditional Mexican songs playing a jarana jarocha, a guitar-shaped string instrument, accompanied by lyrics that included themes about our school, the students, and their work collaborating on the tapetes.

The entire workshop was led completely in Spanish, as fourth and sixth graders alike are immersed in the language each week. Both grades are reading books in Spanish that include the topic of Día de Muertos as well.

After students wrapped up the workshop, fourth graders visited our MS Día de Muertos altar (ofrenda), displayed in the second-floor atrium. Led by their sixth grade peers, they strung butterflies they made through the skulls, paper flowers, images and candles making up the altar. 

This cross-divisional, immersive experience highlights the level of collaboration, curiosity for cultures, and strong appreciation of all forms of art that not only exists, but fuels the Berkeley Carroll community.

More about Espejo Escénico: 

Espejo Escénico is a group formed by women artists with extensive experience in music and theater in Oaxaca, since its inception as a company have been governed under the premise of bringing the performing arts to marginalized communities and away from the artistic and cultural activity in their community. (www.cruzandoensuenos.com)