Roberto Romo, a Chicano artist and high school teacher, paints a skull to celebrate Día de los Muertos at a market on Saturday. Photo by Isalia Gallo.
Bright colored symbolic ornaments surrounded crowds of people who came together over the weekend to celebrate an important Mexican tradition that honors their ancestors.
The Día de los Muertos market took place on Saturday and Sunday near Happy Hollow Park and Zoo. Named after Día de los Muertos, which translates to Day of the Dead, the market featured vendors selling traditional native clothing, handmade decorations, food and colorful artwork.
Día de los Muertos is a traditional Mexican holiday that honors the lives of relatives and close friends who died. The holiday, which starts every Nov. 1 and ends Nov. 2, is significant to Mexican culture because it’s believed that the souls of the dead return to visit the living, according to an Oct. 30, 2018 article by history.com.
According to the article, living family members honor their deceased family and friends in their celebrations and leave the deceased’s favorite foods and other offerings at altars that people build in their homes.
Inside the market, customers enjoyed lively Mexican music while they shopped and bonded over Día de los Muertos traditions.
Artists from around San Jose came to the market to paint and draw cultural artwork in front of patrons.
Roberto Romo, a Chicano artist and art teacher for Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City, painted a skull art piece as a crowd of people surrounded him.
Romo has drawn professionally for around ten years and said he takes pride in his culture by accentuating the structure of skulls with bright beaming designs and colors in his paintings.
“[My art is] always culture driven,” Romo said. “Everybody has a mental state and emotional state, but I think what sets you apart from everything is your identity and your culture.”
Skulls are one of the biggest cultural images representing Día de los Muertos.
Traditionally, the skulls are made from sugar and placed on altars, according to an Oct. 31, 2019 Refinery29 article, a digital media and entertainment website focused on young women.
The sugar skulls signify that “death doesn’t have to be bitter, it can be sweet,” said Juan Aguirre, director of
Mano a Mano, a New York-based nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating and promoting Mexican culture, in the Refinery29 article.
The altars feature offerings like paintings or colorful flowers to show appreciation and remembrance for loved ones who died.
Many vendors had incredible background stories and expressed how they continue to be inspired by their cultural roots.
Luis Luna, the owner of Artes Luna, a custom apparel and design business, creates custom traditional apparel and drawings by using oil, spray and airbrush paints and wood burning.
Wood burning, also known as pyrography, is a technique used to draw or design on wood. Fernando Luna uses this method on some of his drawings.
After struggling to adapt to the U.S. as a 9-year-old Mexican immigrant, Luna got in touch with his creativity and took inspiration from his Mexican and American cultures.
“I make everything with the help of my mother, who assembles my hats, and brother, who is a graphic designer,” he said.
Other artists shared why they appreciated their cultural backgrounds.
Yolanda Luna, Luis Luna’s sister, is the owner of another custom art shop called Luna Artista and sells keychains and cultural drawings. She is an artist who creates acrylic paintings and keychains with
quetzal-sharks that symbolize the Aztec and Maya tribes.
Yolanda Luna said that the quetzal-sharks are a combination her brother made from the San Jose sharks logo
and Aztec-carved stone designs.
She has her own drawing interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa, late Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla and moon-shaped floral keychains to signify her business’s name.
“As a single mother it’s very hard to be an artist and make money, but incorporating my traditions and culture really motivates me to become a better artist,” she said.