Photo: Weingart East Los Angeles YMCA Youth Institute

Ofelia Esparza

Mexican American altars

Greater Los Angeles Los Angeles County Latino/a/x Native American Visual/Craft/Material Arts Chicano/a/x

For Mexican Catholics, altares, or home altars, are installations consisting of artifacts, mementos, photographs, prefabricated objects, flowers, santos (saints), and candles to create a sacred place either within a home or on public display for special feast days of the church. Ofelia Esparza, who has lived in East Los Angeles her entire life, explains, “My altars stem from the legacy left to me from beyond three generations of women-from my mother to my great-great mother.” Her work is informed by a deep spiritual belief in the traditional process, which pays homage and evokes memory of people, events, or places through multilevel structures embellished with photos, traditional foods, flowers, and handmade and found adornments.

Gallery

Altar created in honor of Aretha Franklin. Photo by Betty Marín/ACTA. 2018.

An altar honoring Sister Karen Bocalerro, founder of Self Help Graphics in East Los Angeles (Photo courtesy of Ofelia Esparza)

For Day of the Dead 2001 at Self Help Graphics, Ofelia Esparza recreated a prison cell in a corner of the gallery (Photo: ACTA)

Ofelia and Elena Esparza assembled this nacimiento for Christmas 2001 (8'x7'x5') (Photo: ACTA)

Master altarista Ofelia Esparza and her daughter Rosanna Esparza Ahrens with a finished altar (Photo courtesy of Ofelia Esparza)

Community altar built in 2007 by master altarista Ofelia Esparza and Rosanna Esparza Ahrens (Photo courtesy of Ofelia Esparza)

Rosanna Esparza Ahrens paints details on an altar-in-construction (Photo courtesy of Ofelia Esparza)

Community altar built in 2010 by master altarista Ofelia Esparza and Rosanna Esparza Ahrens (Photo courtesy of Ofelia Esparza)

Ofelia Esparza receives the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2018. From left to right: ACTA board president Daniel Sheehy, 2018 National Heritage Fellow and California master quilter Marion Coleman, Ofelia Esparza, and ACTA Executive Director Amy Kitchener. Photo: Julián Carrillo/ACTA.

In 2018 Ofelia was received the nation’s highest honor for folk and traditional artists, the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, for her altar-making. She was also recently commissioned to build an altar for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County as part of their new permanent exhibition, Becoming Los Angeles.

In 2017 Ofelia and her daughter Rosanna Esparza Ahrens have been part of ACTA’s Arts in Corrections Program. They teach a 13-week course in visual poetry and assemblage, which involves altar-making, at the California Institution for Women in Chino, CA. In 2016, Ofelia and Rosanna joined the Building Healthy Communities project in Boyle Heights to bring spiritual and arts practices to the Health Happens through Prevention campaign, both through their work with the public and their work internally on the project team.

Ofelia and and her daughter Rosanna run a gallery and open studio in Boyle Heights called Tonalli Studio.

Apprenticeship Program

Denise Esparza and Ofelia Esparza. Photo: Courtesy of Denise Esparza.

2022

Traditional Mexican Ofrenda/Altar-making
with apprentice Denise Esparza

As part of ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program, Ofelia will mentor her youngest daughter, Denise Esparza, in designing, creating and installing an ofrenda that challenges her creativity beyond the traditional style to articulate her own concepts. To practice transmitting ofrenda-making to the next generation, Denise will present her process and theme in a public setting, attended by children from a local elementary school.

2012

Traditional Mexican Ofrenda/Altar-making
with apprentice Rosanna Esparza Ahrens

Ofelia was a master artist in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2012, with her daughter and apprentice Rosanna. Their apprenticeship focused on the construction of an altar, Tree of Life, honoring life in East Los Angeles. The altar was installed at Self Help Graphics during their annual Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, exhibition.

2002

Traditional Mexican Ofrenda/Altar-making
with apprentice Elena Esparza

As a master artist in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2002, Ofelia guided another daughter, Elena Esparza, in the artistic and spiritual principles of altar building. During the apprenticeship, they focused on altars for specific holidays: ofrendas (altars) for Dia de los Muertos (November 2) and nacimientos (nativity scenes) for Christmas.

Ofelia Esparza with her daughter and apprentice Rosanna Esparza Ahrens. Photo: Timo Saarelma/ACTA.

"Los Jovenes Si Importan" Walking Altar for Invest in Youth Rally part of Health Happens in Neighborhoods, created by Ofelia Esparza and daughter Rosanna Esparza Ahrens, master altermakers. Photo: Rosanna Esparza Ahrens/ACTA, 2018.

La salud mental es un derecho humano public altar at Wyvernwood Apts in Boyle Heights created by Ofelia Esparza and daughter Rosanna Esparza with BHC mentee Luz Marlene Cordero. Photo: Rosanna Esparza Ahrens/ACTA, 2018.

Ceremony led by Ofelia Esparza and daughter Elena Esparza during event, ActivArte: Detouring Displacement. Photo: ACTA, 2014.

Ceremonial welcome led by Ofelia Esparza and Rosanna Esparza Ahrens, during REMAP LA. Photo: Timo Saarelma/ACTA, 2019.

Master altarmaker Rosanna Esparza Ahrens leading a flowermaking workshop At ACTA Cultural Treasures convening at Self Help Graphics in Boyle Heights. Photo: Amy Kitchener/ACTA, 2012.

"Mi Nombre es Sagrado" Altar made for a workshop of the same name led by Ofelia Esparza and daughter Rosanna Esparza, master altermakers. Photo: Betty Marín/ACTA, 2018.

Altar created in honor of Aretha Franklin by BLANK. Photo by Betty Marín/ACTA. 2018.