Amma, Violence, Day of the Dead

[Guest guest]

Hi brothers and sisters,

 

Some of the students and graduates of the Women's Spirituality

Programs at New College of California and California Insitutute of

Integral Studies helped develop a Day of the Dead altar for a big

display in San Francisco (SomArts Gallery, 934 Brannan, SF). The Day

of the Dead, for those not living near an area with a big Mexican

population,is a Mexican indigenous festival where the ancestors are

venerated. The belief is that they return to visit the living on

that day. Combined with veneration of ancestors is a fair amount of

good humoured reminders that this mortal life will end.

 

Ammachi had given her blessing for the WS program at New College to

work together with the MA Center. I invited several women from MA

Center to participate in our altar building experience. One woman who

is an NCOC graduate from the Washington DC area and also an Amma

devotee worked with us. After Amma's comments at the UN and her stand

against violence toward women, it felt especially appropriate to be

doing what we were doing. We built the altar from the Durga days

through the Lakshmi days during Navaratri.

 

Our altar is in memory of young women, sometimes teenagers -- poor

women who came to the border town of Cuidad Juarez in Mexico to work -

- who have been killed. As of mid July 2002, there were 320 who had

been killed. Ninety seem to have been the victims of a serial

killer. An additional 450 have "disappeared." Corruption in the

local Mexican police department has blocked any investigation such

that some wonder whether police might be involved in the killings.

The attorney General of El Paso, Texas has been trying to gain

cooperation from authorities in Mexico to investigate and stop this

violence. He is concerned that the killer or one of the killers may

live in El Pase and go to Juarez on crime sprees.

 

Our altar is a multi-cultural expression. Some of my sculpture

inspired by our bhajans is there. A wonderful fabric batik of Kali

is there. An African quilt, a wallhanging is there. Indeed the whole

exhibit shows altars from every culture in the SF Bay Area. The Day

of the Dead is on November 2. The press and TV will come on November

1 to tell about the display.

 

All this made me realize that my own home altar needed some

refreshing and I got out the metal polish and everything sparkles now.

 

 

Aikya