A few months ago, I was contacted by a representative of the Wereld Museum in Rotterdam. The initial email took me by surprise, since 99% of the emails I get of this nature have been the classic:

“Good afternoon [artist name], we saw your website portfolio on the interwebs, and we are IN LOVE with you. Money, please?”

Now, my husband encouraged me to look deeper into it, and it was an opportunity that was truly too good to be true. This person was looking for an illustrator with Mexican roots who would like to participate in creating a few images for a workshop that teaches kids a bit about Día de los Muertos.

Those who know me (hi girlies!) know that Día de Muertos is the only holiday I observe and enjoy doing anything for. This year was a particularly difficult one with grief, so not a lot went into celebrating. But this was an emotional, exciting, and unique opportunity that I was very interested in pursuing! So communications started, and collaboration began soon thereafter.

For me, this went beyond the obvious cool factor of having something I made being reproduced by a group of kids who would learn about my favorite holiday, and… did I mention they would be doing my designs?!

This was me fulfilling a small part of what has been in my mind for the past year or so:
Growing up in Mexico, I was fortunate enough to have had a very culturally rich country, and I had an incredibly supportive family that went above and beyond to fulfill my creative and educational ambitions. My immigration to the Netherlands has given me the privilege, but also the responsibility, of carrying and representing that rich culture that nurtured me during my formative years. Through this workshop, I take a baby step forward in that endeavour. To fulfill part of my cultural responsibility.

As an immigrant, I believe that one of the biggest honours we have is precisely the sharing of our culture. However, I can also see that this could lead to the commodification and, in some instances, the gentrification of iconography and deeply important symbols of cultures that have been underrepresented- or, in some cases, misrepresented.

Have I contributed to that? Possibly, and I apologise for that. Thinking back on my own experiences as a kid of the same age as those who attended the workshop, I think experiencing other people’s cultures made me a very curious person and granted me the open-mindedness to recognise I could be contributing to it. Wow, María, no one has ever reached those conclusions before; gold star sticker for you!

To that, I think I can only say: If you are curious to know more about this beautiful tradition that celebrates the life of those who have passed, please look into it for yourself.

Understand that this is not limited to Mexican culture, and that even within it, there are variations, different rituals and iconography, and all of it is deeply rooted in centuries of tradition and syncretism of beliefs (some of which were not by choice, and it’s worth mentioning)

My goodness, woman, shut up and let us see the images of the workshop!

The following pictures are a few of the images we took during one of the walk-in workshops at the Amsterdam branch of the Wereld Museum. And the last one is the designs done for this particular workshop.

Thank you to the Wereld Museum for the amazing opportunity!