Edible Art

Edible Art. Sugar skulls or calaveras are a sweet treat that is a custom of the holiday, Day of the Dead. Yolanda Perdomo’s article “Sugar Skulls,” reveals the history of the Mondragon family who have been coming to Chicago since 1995. Each year the family comes the National Museum of Mexican Art to show how they continue to use the same traditions of making sugar skulls which has been past down from their ancestors. Throughout her entire article, Yolanda creates a visual image. It is as if you weren’t reading an article but watching a short documentary of celebrating life and accepting death, instead. The article is full of quotes of the Mondragon family and visitors who come to the museum to view their art. By researching and interviewing with a bunch of people, Yolanda is able to give a more personal information to the reader versus what you would get from a textbook. I think what would help make this article stronger is if the author would have incorporated her own voice more. For example, she could describe the sugar skulls in more detail or continue to add more detail of the Mondragon working on the sugar skulls in the museum. Even though there is plenty of history describing the sweet treats, it would have been nice to hear more of the history of the Day of the Dead holiday to understand what it is about and how the skulls play in to it. The author only begins to skim the surface of everything.