Mexican artist is setting up 2 Day of the Dead altars here
by Teya Vitu on Oct. 31, 2007, under Local
'For the Americans to like one of our customs, I think it's very
interesting.'
<allcaps>Carmen Leyva</allcaps> (above),
with a Day of the Dead altar at her sister's custom furniture shop, Aquí Está (Here It Is), 204 S. Park Ave. At right is her portrait of depiction of La Catrina.
Carmen Leyva Watson has claimed a nook in a Mexican furniture store to build her Day of the Dead altar.
Year-round, Watson displays her paintings in Aquí Está (Here It Is), 204 S. Park Ave., which is owned by her sister Marta Mendivil and managed by her niece Edna Olmedo.
But as Día de los Muertos nears, she supplements the paintings with an altar, holding candles, skeletons and flowers.
Watson’s nook adds vibrant color to the furniture store.
“Everybody who comes in and sees it loves it,” Olmedo said.
The Day of the Dead altar started taking shape over the weekend and Watson adds to it as items arrive from Mexico.
As of Monday, she had spread a folded purple (“purple is the color of grief in Catholicism,” Watson said) rebozo, or wrap, on a narrow shelf.
Four small skulls colorfully painted by Watson sat on the shelf as did six purple, yellow and white candles. By the time Friday rolls around, Watson expects to have 16 candles – one for each person who died and who is being “invited” to this feast in their honor.
For Watson, this includes her grandparents and parents, a sister, some aunts and uncles and “an old boyfriend.” The altar will includes pictures of all the dead who are “invited.”
“We’re waiting for sugar skulls, huge candles, orange and gold marigold flowers and a papier-mâché La Catrina,” said Watson, adding that La Catrina was a rich female cartoon skeleton character created in the Mexican revolutionary period 100 years ago. Watson’s La Catrina will be dressed in a glittery red dress with orange boa.
“I like to share Mexican customs with the people,” Watson said. “Día de las Muertos is (pre-Columbian) and Catholic. It’s both. When the Spanish came to Mexico, it fused into one ritual. On that day (Nov. 2), God allows the dead to come back and have a meal. We prepare the food they like, the drink they like, the cigarettes. He or she is invited to the feast.”
The feast will include Irish stew for her mother, who was half-Irish; caldo de queso (cheese broth) for her Sonoran father, molé for her sister, “and the tequila, which is very important,” Watson said with her brimming humor.
Watson was born in Sonora but has lived in Mexico City for 44 years and for the past five years has divided her time between Mexico and the U.S. Until she retired five years ago, she owned an art gallery in Mexico City for 22 years that displayed and sold the works of Latin American masters including Frida Kahlo.
Watson has drawn all her life but only started painting in color five years ago. She started with Mexican scenes and a skeleton or two. Quickly, the skeletons became her trademark.
“People started telling me, ‘Can you do a skeleton?’ ” she said. “Then I started doing them funny. No matter what social level you are or how beautiful you are or how charismatic, we’re all going to look the same.”
Watson will have another altar on display Nov. 2 to 7 at the Día de los Muertos exhibit at El Centro Cultural de las Americas, 40 W. Broadway.
