The Presentation

A look back thirty years with archival footage of Day of the Dead celebrations in the weavers’ town of Teotitlán del Valle in 1994. Discovered in the artist’s archive of Day of the Dead celebrations she has documented, this newly edited video shows preparations for Dead celebrations in this Central Valleys town in 1994. Children playing the “nuts” game, traditional ofrendas, food being prepared in traditional kitchens, and the entire village going to the cemetery to await their ancestors and perhaps new faces to appear during the night. This work was edited and presented to the Teotitlán del Valle community for their archives. The Presenters will be joined by ladies from the Centro Cultural Comunitario de Teotitlan del Valle who will exhibit some of their creations which also will be for sale.

Please Note:

The Centro Cultural Comunitario de Teotitlán del Valle is run by a group of dedicated, volunteer women on a two-year cycle or “cargo”. Their

oversite includes exhibitions and a Gift Shop that are off the visitor landing near the visitor parking near the Museum and Alternative Tourism

Offices. Some of members will be present at this screening with items that are frequently sold in the gift shop that are all made in the

community.

The Centro Cultural Comunitario recently celebrated the 7th anniversary with music and dance and song provided by some of the projects that they

oversee and facilitate: The talented Youth and Children’s Band, Zapotec Classes for children, the secondary school’s Danza de la Pluma, special

cultural events for the community and they introduced a new project that includes, Kapra Fleming and Miguel Lopez Lemus. This summer 10

interviews were completed for the start of the Proyecto Archivo Comunitario Historia Oral (PACHO) to create an oral history archive for

the community in Zapotec with youth interviewing elders about the history of the community, cultural events and traditions and personal histories.

A short video will accompany the Day of the Dead in Teotitlan del Valle 1994 from an event that the Centro Cultural Comunitario hosted last

November 3rd for local youth teaching the traditions of games from the past. That includes both the girls’ and the boys’ versions of the “nut

game” (Nueces de los Antepasados) that is featured in the 1994 video.

The Presenters

Kapra Fleming started photographing at the age of 10 and after receiving a BA in German/French in 1975 from Purdue University, West Lafayette she moved to Chicago to work in a Japanese Import company, volunteering at Facets Multimedia and then co-founding and directing a small non-profit art gallery for 3 years. She received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1985 where she focused on performance art, film and video. She was active in the mid-1980s with Women in the Director’s Chair and chaired the documentary jury for the Chicago International Film Festival. She later worked with video training at-risk youth through the Chicago Children’s Museum, The Center for New Television, Gallery 37 and independently

through city-funded project grants. Her work has been seen in Chicago, Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, Milwaukee and Atlanta as well as abroad in Germany, Switzerland, France and Mexico. Her current film/video works are short experimental pieces or personal documentaries: portraits of people or places. Her most recent documentary follows an Ocotlán de Morelos artist through the process of harvesting and carving a winning entry in the 126th Noche de Rábanos competition in 2023.

Luis Mendoza Hernandez an indigenous Zapoteco Luis was born in 1981 in the artisan weaving community of Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca. He attended Escuela Primaria Benito Juarez in Teotitlán and then migrated to the US at the age of 14. He attended Foothill High School inOrange County, then Riverside Community College. He lived and worked in California and Oregon for 16 years and then returned in 2011 to Teotitlán del Valle at

the age of 30.

Since then he has worked as a weaver and a cultural community promoter in different states of Mexico. He served as an altar boy in his youth, then as a member of the committee of Escuelas Primarias and as a local guide by Turismo Alternativo de Teotitlán del Valle. He is passionate about community service and is an avid Teotitlán del Valle promoter. You can find him in the Teotitlán del Valle Turismo Alternativo, Museo Comunitario or Centro Cultural Comunitario.