Day of the Dead on wheels: How a van is sharing the tradition with migrant communities through art

"In Charlotte, North Carolina, a black food truck moves slowly down the road. It doesn't deliver food it delivers art. Inside, lights, copal incense, pan de muerto (sweet bread for Day of the Dead), and a calavera (skull decoration) welcome anyone who steps into the Mobile Art Studio, the traveling project of Mexican artivist Rosalia Torres-Weiner, 64, which this year's Dia de Muertos, or Day of Dead has been transformed into an immersive, free experience for Latino communities in the southern United States."

"Torres-Weiner was born into a family where art was a constant presence and became a form of refuge. Her childhood was marked by domestic violence, but also by the imagination that allowed her to survive. When my father yelled, I would hide my little brothers and sisters under the table and, with a matchbox that I turned into a camera, I would tell them, Smile, I'm going to take your picture.' That's when I discovered that art had power."

"Years later, that same impulse would lead her to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Her story is that of thousands of migrants: a mix of courage, displacement, and reinvention. She arrived in Los Angeles at 21, dreaming of working as a flight attendant, but found a job opportunity in the hotel industry. She rose through the ranks at Marriott hotels and established herself professionally. Yet art kept following her."

Rosalia Torres-Weiner converted a black food truck into a Mobile Art Studio that brings immersive Day of the Dead offerings to Latino communities in the southern United States. The truck contains lights, copal incense, pan de muerto and a calavera and operates as a free, traveling art project. Torres-Weiner drew on a childhood shaped by domestic violence and imagination, using art as refuge. She migrated to the United States at 21, built a career in the hotel industry, and later dedicated herself to public art after financial setbacks. The Mobile Art Studio serves to bring museums and Mexican cultural expression directly to communities.

Read at english.elpais.com