Ofrenda infinita (I2 + IMS)

Every year in la Ciudad de Mexico thousands of people celebrate Dia de los muertos on November 1st and 2nd. Families participate in a wide array of activities, from parades filled with catrinas and cempasúchil, to visits to deceased loved one’s tombs at the cemetery, and the building of ofrendas and altares.

Due to our current situation, the world wide Covide-19 pandemic, and in an effort to keep people safely at home, the local government of Mexico City, launched the “Ofrenda Infinita” photography contest, exhorting people to create their altares at home and share them through social media, on Instagram.

For four years it has been a tradition of my classroom, during first trimester Exhibition, to include an altar in which students display smaller ofrendas for loved ones whom have passed away. Even when I am teaching virtually, I wanted to keep the tradition going, so I tasked each student in my Intermedio MS and Intermedio 2 classes to create an ofrenda in their home for a family member, a friend, or a person they admire. The students of the I2 class also wrote a brief description of their ofrenda, and then presented their work to their classmates. Lastly, they asked and answered each other questions about their work through a FlipGrid video.

I later posted their ofrenda photos on my teaching Instagram account (mundos_de_lqo), and students had the choice to write their descriptions in the comment section. The #ofrendainfinita (hashtag), suggested by the government of Mexico City, was used on their posts.