Fonda Portales, director of university art and an art historian of pre-contact Mesoamerica, was invited by the Sun Valley Museum of Art and the Hunger Coalition in Bellevue to present an interactive workshop on building the ofrenda, the altar of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
For many in Latin American cultures, Día de los Muertos is a time to celebrate ancestors and is enveloped in rich, present-day religious and indigenous, pre-columbian imagery. The ofrenda is the center of that celebration and is made vibrant with the visual symbolism of cempasúchil (marigold) flowers, calaveras (skulls), foods, photographs and more. Building the ofrenda is a communal and familial practice that allows the lives and stories of ancestors to be revived, retold and remembered.
Portales will be giving a similar workshop for the Mini-Cassia community on Nov. 1 at the Superior Event Center, 1051 Oakley Avenue in Burley, Idaho.