Join us for an afternoon🍦ice cream social celebrating East LA's cultural bearer and SHG Legacy Artist, Ofelia Esparza's 9️0th birthday on Saturday, March 19, 12:00 p.m. -2:00 p.m. Registration is required. Please wear a 😷 mask.

About Ofelia

Ofelia Esparza is a Chicana sixth-generation altarista (altar-maker), artist, and educator from East Los Angeles. Esparza is recognized for her work with Self Help Graphics & Art (SHG), specifically for her community ofrendas (altars)for Día de Los Muertos.

She began building public altars in 1979, learning under SHG's founder Sister Karen Boccalero, where she developed a large body of printmaking work. Cultural arts were integral to her own classroom curriculum at City Terrace Elementary School until her retirement in 1999.

Her work honors womanhood and the dignity of her community and reflects the spirituality found in nature. Esparza celebrates her indigenous Mexican heritage, informed by her mother's passion to carry on her altarista traditions of ofrendas, Nacimientos (nativity scenes), and altars honoring Tonantzin (Our Lady of Guadalupe). She has taught altar-making at Plaza de la Raza in East L.A. since 1984.

In 2016, she was conferred an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Humane Letters by California State University, Los Angeles. In 2017, the L.A. County Natural History Museum commissioned her and her daughter, Rosanna Esparza Ahrens, to install a permanent altar honoring the city's cultural diversity. The duo also served as cultural advisors to Pixar for its 2017 production Coco and currently teaches classes on "Visual Poetry & Sacred Space" at a women's prison in Chino, CA, via the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. Esparza was honored with a National Heritage Fellowship in 2018 from the National Endowment for the Arts.

#OfeliaEsparza #CulturalIcon

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Note COVID Visitor Requirements: All visitors must wear a mask at all times, including vaccinated guests. In accordance with the City of Los Angeles municipal code, Self Help Graphics will need to verify proof of vaccination for people 12 years of age or older; or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of visiting our cultural center. All people 18 years of age and older must also show identification upon entry.

Thank you for working with us to ensure the health and safety of all visitors and that we're in compliance with the City of Los Angeles ordinance. People who do not show either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test will unfortunately be turned away