Cultural Extinction

I remember when I was six, every January 6th my parents would buy sweet bread (Rosca). It had dried fruit that was dyed green, yellow and red, I never knew what those colors symbolized. As I've gotten older I discovered that green symbolizes peace, red symbolizes love and yellow symbolizes honor. The bread is shaped into an oval to represent a king's crown. However, there is a little surprise awaiting for you, a plastic a baby. The plastic baby symbolizes Jesus Christ. It is hidden inside the bread, to represent the Christ child's birth location to remain a secret. If your slice of the sweet bread has the plastic baby it means that for Dia de la Candelaria on February 2nd, you have to host the party and make the tamales. This day is very symbolic in my culture, sadly, this day is no longer celebrated for many people.

Instantly, when our topic was cultural extinction for this project, I had a vision of how I wanted it to look. I knew I was going to make some adjustments to the white plastic baby that is found inside the Rosca, I was going to make it colorful and innocent. The baby was going to be sitting in the center of the oval bread, the slogan was going to go across my final piece in black fancy letters. On the other hand, as I was finishing my art piece, I noticed space was going to be a huge issue when I started to write my slogan. For a moment I freaked out, but, after discussing and getting feedback from my Advanced Product Design teacher, Mrs.Cooper, I found a solution. How did I not think of it? It was a good thing I wrote in pencil, all I had to do was make the words a tiny bit smaller and put the words on the negative space by the baby's head. In spite of this slight challenge, the medium I used was a success. The acrylic paint captured the look I was going for, a faded look to not cause things to be so harsh. With a touch of water the paint smoothly gave my piece a faded look.

The cultural tradition of La Rosca needs to be brought back by the art of propaganda. January 6, 2015 will be the day that La Rosca De Los Reyes Magos will be celebrated once again. Peace, love and honor will be symbolized on this day. Remember, if in your slice you get the plastic baby..... Te tocan los tamales!