For the Dia de los Muertos project, we were assigned to complete two different mini projects, one being the writing of calaveras (which are Mexican satirical poems) and the other being to write about a lost loved one, and providing a picture of them. We wrote two different calaveras, one being about a certain occupation, and the other being about a specific person. Both of my calaveras targeted politicians, as they are a very easy target for satire. I focused the majority of my attention on the first written calavera, which was about politics in general (without one main focus). I went through four major revision processes, the most important of which was my second as it involved the feedback from both of my teachers and enabled me to work through the major grammatical and structural flaws. The third and fourth draft were my own, and it was seeing if there were words that could be easily changed to allow the poem to flow more, or if there were ways to write the calavera out more professionally and to look more visually pleasing. As for the cultural aspect of this project, my learning process was extremely great, as I had had little to no knowledge of Dia de los Muertos before this year (surprising, I know), and so I was astonished at the fact the in that culture, death is as much a part of their lives as food is! My biggest takeaway was definitely the idea that the dead should not be mourned, rather celebrated (which in a way is their form of mourning).
The images you see above are the work that I composed. From left to right: Lost Loved One art with Description, Calavera Art with calavera write-up, Both calaveras in written form!