Dia de los Muertos (2012, 1st Ed)

Melanie Cervantes
18″ x 24″
4-Color including blend, Handprinted, Screenprint,  Poster Paper, Printed with Artutro Negrete from Taller 75 Grados at El Rincón de Sabina, Printed in Oaxaca, MX November 2012
First Edition

It was really important to me to center a danzante in the composition of this poster because I feel that Dia de los Muertos is about a world view that understands the duality between life and death. These understandings are rooted in indigenous cosmologies and world-views from peoples across the Americas. I didn’t want the image to flatten what used to be a month long ceremony about remembering the ancestors to a kitschy image of a cartoonish skull that provides no historical context to traditional practices or the reasons for them. I shot this photo of Lazaro Arvizu a danzante from Xipe Totec who used to come to my community college in Los Angeles to teach the third and fourth graders from local schools about the traditions of Dia de los Muertos. This was the last year I helped organize the event before I moved to the Bay.