Piñata [Object]

A piñata is a decorated container of paper or clay that contains sweets, small toys, fruits, and nuts. It is the object of a game played in Mexico at children's birthday parties and at Christmas celebrations, in which blindfolded children take turns trying to break the piñata with a stick to release the treats.

Yet the piñata has a long history. Piñatas are typically made of paper-mâché, and are attributed to China where paper originated. Marco Polo is believed to have seen Chinese paper figures of bulls and other animals covered with colored paper and filled with seeds. When struck with a stick, the seeds spilled out. As part of the ritual, the paper creation was then burned and its ashes gathered for good luck. Polo likely brought the idea to Italy, where by the 14th century it was associated with celebration of Lent, and acquired the Italian name pignatta or "fragile pot." This custom spread to Spain in subsequent centuries, but involved a clay pot called la olla, derived from a colloquial Arabic word for a terracotta water jug. Paper decorations and ribbons were wrapped around the pot to make it festive.

Missionaries brought the custom to New Spain, where it encountered a similar tradition. To honor the Aztec god of war, a decorated, filled pot was broken in the temple at the feet of the god's statue. Catholic missionaries employed the colorful piñata custom to teach Christian religion. A traditional Mexican shape for piñatas is a spherical shape with seven conical points symbolizing the seven deadly sins—greed, gluttony, sloth, pride, envy, wrath, and lust. Inside the piñata, however, were tempting sweets and treats, representing the pleasures of life. The person wielding the stick of virtue represents faith, which can defeat evil, and the treats represented the hope of reward.

This symbolic piñata became traditional at Christmas, and is shown here. Today, piñatas come in the shape of animals, cars, and cartoon characters. Making piñatas for children's parties is a major industry, especially since the custom continued to spread around the world.

Photograph (top) Victor Ancheta, "Christmas Piñata," Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/victorancheta/2167074229/in/photostream/; (bottom) Katia Lopez-Hodoyan, "Piñata: Party's Game Is Ancient History," La Prensa San Diego, February 6, 2004, http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/february06-04/pinata.htm; Wendy Devlin, "History of the Piñata," Mexconnect, http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/459 (accessed January 26, 2010). Annotated by Susan Douglass.

Immigrant Crossing Road Sign [Newspaper Article and Photograph]

Interstate 5 runs from the Mexican/U.S. border crossing at San Ysidro, California, to the Peace Arch Crossing into Canada at Blaine, Washington. This official yellow warning road sign is posted along Interstate 5 near the San Ysidro crossing and north of San Diego. The sign shows a man and a woman running as the woman pulls a girl with pigtails along, her feet barely touching the ground. San Ysidro is the world's busiest land border crossing, with more than 17 million vehicles and 50 million people crossing legally in 2005. The California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, developed this warning sign after more than 100 undocumented immigrants were killed on the highway, especially near border control points. After trying a wordy and ineffective sign that read, "Caution Watch for People Crossing Road," Caltrans assigned graphic artist John Hood, a Vietnam veteran of Navaho parentage, to develop the new sign. Posted in 1990, it quickly became a cultural icon for those who tolerate and those who oppose immigration, both legal and illegal.

Migration in borderlands such as the California/Mexico crossing have attracted academic attention as a phenomenon of globalization. In 1990 and 1991, almost 3.5 million immigrants were admitted legally to the United States—a number larger than at any previous point in American history, and as of 2009, over 25 million people in the U.S. are foreign born, excluding illegal immigrants. In some urban Southern California counties, the majority of residents are immigrants, and many of these are children who require schooling, health care, and other services. Academic study of immigration tracks both the reception of immigrants among the resident population, and the interaction of the immigrants with the destination country. Of the 24 million Americans in the United States today who migrated since 1960, 40% came as children.

Leslie Berestein, "Highway safety sign becomes running story on immigration," The San Diego Union Tribune, April 10, 2005. Available online (accessed July 1, 2009). Photograph by permission, Copyright Roger J. Wendell, http://www.rogerwendell.com/images/photography/immigrant_crossing_san_diego_03-18-2004.jpg (accessed July 1, 2009).

Susan Douglass

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Seri Children Sliding on Turtle Shells [Photograph]

Six children of the Seri indigenous people slide down a hill using the shells of sea turtles as sleds, illustrating the universal ability of children to create play activities including equipment out of things in their environment. These children belong to a group that has been indigenous to the area for many generations, so it is likely that this game has a long heritage on the beaches where sea turtles come to breed. The place is Tiburón Island in the Gulf of California, the state of Sonora, Mexico. The island is named Tahéjöc in the language of the Seri, which is a linguistic isolate, or language distinct from all others in the region. Clans of Seri lived in the area of Tiburón Island for many centuries if not millennia. Their heritage was recognized by a decree of the Mexican government in 1975, granting them a title of communal property ("reconocimiento y titulación de terrenos comunales). Today Tiburón Island is a nature reserve.

The photograph was taken in 1924 by Edward H. Davis (1862-1951) who owned a ranch near San Diego, California. He explored the vicinity, photographed its indigenous inhabitants, and collected native objects. Through his knowledge of the region and familiarity with the people, he was able to capture this revealing, unusual image. George Heye, founder of the Museum of the American Indian, hired Davis in 1916 to help add to his collection.

Silver gelatin print by Edward H. Davis, 1924, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, <a class="external" href="http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/item.aspx?irn=319492&catids=2,4&des=children&src=1-5"> http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/item.aspx?irn=319492&catids=2,4&des=children&src=1-5</a> (accessed July 28, 2009).

Susan Douglass

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