Day of the Dead Altar, 2021
Day of the Dead altar at Plaza de la Raza in East Los Angeles. Altar dedicated to the murdered women of Juarez especially to artist and activist Isabel Cabanillas de la Torre who was murder last year in Juarez, Mexico.
Ni Santas collective members’ Joan Zamora and Andi Xoch created quinceañera keepsakes for the disappeared young women of Juarez for The Music Center’s (Los Angeles) Quinceañera Reimaged Event. The artists wanted to pay homage to the missing women of Juarez and trans women who did not have the opportunity to celebrate their own quinceañeras. Event participants were invited and guided by Zamora and Xoch to create their own keepsakes at the Recuerdo Making Station. Using those keepsakes, along with found objects and flowers, Joan decided to create an altar to for murder activist and artist Isabel Cabanillas de la Torre. Isabel was murdered last year in the ciudad de Juarez, in Mexico. She was a member of Hijas de su Maquilera Madre, a feminist collective fighting against femicide, some of whose members include the daughters of women maquila workers who were among the first victims of femicide in Ciudad Juarez. Her death sparked protests across the Mexico- U.S. border.