꧁𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖎꧂

I worked hard on this and I am really proud of my first ofrenda as someone who has been spending a lot of time and effort trying to reconnect with all facets of my ancestry, especially the parts of our story that have been neglected and forgotten in order to assimilate into a society that demanded to conform in order to survive. Death and grief have also been difficult for me to reckon with throughout my life. I was surprised at how warm and healing it felt throughout the process of building our ofrenda. To sit with and hold space for my loved ones, some that I did not get a real chance to say goodbye to, some that I did not get a chance to meet at all, was a beautiful experience and all the effort throughout the week was so worth that feeling of warmth and knowing they’re with me. The amount of time I put toward researching my ancestors and what their lives were like during their time here, reigniting their stories and remembering their names, has brought me so much closer to them. Ancestral work had previously felt so distant and unattainable for me, but I have felt a shift once I began to put real effort into learning their stories. I can feel with every intentional action, that connection to them strengthens.

I am also proud that I made the sugar skulls and pan de muerto from scratch. I’m pretty sure that was my first time ever baking anything by myself and I was so surprised at how good the bread turned out! I even molded the sugar skulls with my hands. I wanted this to be genuine and consist of true intentional effort. It was truly a labor of love for my family.

I know there’s a lot of pictures here, but I just couldn’t stop taking them because I was so proud at how beautiful it turned out. There are things I would like to do differently next year, but I think for my first time, it came out pretty well.

Nadie muere mientras se le recuerde.♥️