Artists from Mexico City create 20-foot Denver Catrina for Día de Muertos

DENVER, Colorado — For just one day this weekend, visitors to the Denver Performing Arts Complex will see Catrinas, symbolic of Día de Muertos, also known as Día de los Muertos. The exhibit features work from Jaen Cartonería, a collective of artists from Mexico City. Four people from the group spent the past three weeks creating works featured in Catrinas En Mi Cuidad, a free community event open to all on Saturday, Oct. 19. 

Jaen Cartonería began when the Jaen family began decorating their home for Día de Muertos. Their neighbors began noticing, asking what they would be doing the next year. 

“As you would say, it was just us playing around,” said artist Rodrigo Medina with the collective. “One day we, as a family, were all together, and we started making decorations with materials that were already going to be thrown away, like some clothes.” 

The people and the neighbors were fascinated, so they began working on more decorations to celebrate Día de Muertos. The group began gaining traction on social media and even more people began showing up to look at their creations. From there, the collective was born. 

Fast forward to this year, four of the artists were invited to create work for Catrinas En Mi Ciudad in Denver. The process for them to get passports and other paperwork in order took about a year from the time organizers reached out the group, who spent the last three weeks creating their art in a warehouse in Commerce City. 

“So what we do represents what our country is, our tradition,” said Reyna Velázquez Secundino with Jaen Cartonería. 

Secundino learned how to work with cardboard from her brother-in-law, Raymundo, who helped start the collective. All of what they do is by hand. Even when they paint, they use their hands rather than brushes. 

“All these pieces could be made with the help of machines, right? That would be the easiest, but that is not the funny thing of Mexican culture. Mexican culture is precisely something beautiful, being able to do everything by hand,” said Rodrigo Medina. 

The materials they use are also ancestral. 

“We wet the paper with paste. It’s flour with water and use it as glue. We are making a coating of the second layer because it has one layer,” said Secundino. 

They layer the materials to make their sculptures more resistant to the elements like rain or wind. They also apply a coating to protect it. 

They hope that by spreading their culture and the meaning behind Día de Muertos, more people will understand the significance and the true meaning. 

“It is a tradition that we want people to know from its roots, to be able to identify the tradition of the Día de Muertos from its origin and also the differentiation that exists with Halloween and to really know the meaning of what death represents for Mexicans,” said Daniela Medina Velázquez, who also works with the collective. 

Velázquez said people often think of the holiday as spooky or something somber. 

“It is a tradition of respect, of remembering them, of saying that we always have them in our minds and in our hearts, that it is not a way of celebrating death but life,” said Secundino. 

Families traditionally in Mexico put out “ofrendas” or altars. Many of them cook their relatives’ favorite food, hoping it will encourage their relatives and loved ones who have passed to visit them in spirit. It is believed they will come back on Nov. 1 and 2 to spend time as their living family members, which is why they put out ofrendas and offerings such as their favorite food to encourage them to return. 

Dispelling some of the misconceptions and misunderstandings about the holiday is what led the organizers, Alexis Newton and Marisol Villagomez, to create Catrinas En Mi Ciudad. The process began when they sent a Facebook message to the cooperative. 

“Marisol and I had been following them for a few years on social media,” said Newton. “Last year, I decided to reach out, send a message on Facebook Messenger to the leader of the cooperative.” 

It took about a year for them to get their passports and paperwork in order. This marks their first trip outside of the country. 

“I hope that people learn more about this special holiday. I hope they see the joy and the beauty that this represents, Día de Muertos and the misconception that it is a celebration of darkness or death dissipates,” said Newton. 

Villagomez hopes that people learn more about the holiday through the Catrinas as well as provide an opportunity for Latinos and Mexicans to celebrate the culture they know and cherish. 

“I think one of the missions of Catrinas En Mi Ciudad is for Latinos themselves to feel so proud to see their culture represented, to see others from their country of origin here in Colorado, showcasing the beauty of what is Día de Muertos.

The Catrinas will be on display at Sculpture Park on Oct. 19 from noon to 6 p.m.