Ceramic tree of life artist Veronica Castillo
Clip: Season 5 | 5m 37sVideo has Closed Captions
Ceramic tree of life artist Veronica Castillo featured in the HOLIDAY episode
Veronica Castillo is a ceramic artist who crafts exquisitely detailed, brightly colored folk art objects using centuries-old methods and symbols. Segment from the HOLIDAY episode
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Ceramic tree of life artist Veronica Castillo
Clip: Season 5 | 5m 37sVideo has Closed Captions
Veronica Castillo is a ceramic artist who crafts exquisitely detailed, brightly colored folk art objects using centuries-old methods and symbols. Segment from the HOLIDAY episode
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- In San Antonio, during the holidays the Mexican-American community celebrates the Posada.
I remember, we would get to play as children, Mary, or Joseph, or the angels.
And we learned to sing those songs as part of growing up.
You celebrated the Posada for nine days, and then the final day you would actually go to the church.
500 years ago, before the Europeans came, we as indigenous people, celebrated the Sun God.
What an important God that is, you know, who gives us life.
There were nine days of festivities, and this just happened to be during the middle of December.
But when the Spanish conquerors come in, they want to rid the indigenous communities of those celebrations.
And so the Sun God gets replaced by Jesus, and our celebration of Navidad.
Veronica Castillo is the master crafts person from Puebla.
She and her family have built many trees of life that are focused on Navidad.
- The origins of the tree of life begins in Mexico.
When a family identified that they were going to marry, two different children to each other, the families would give a branch to their respective future families.
They held onto that branch for 10 years.
And on the 10th year, they would take those branches and burn them.
And then instead of the branch, what they shared with each other was a tree of life in clay.
When the Spanish conquerors come in, bringing in their Catholic religion, the tree of life changes.
The regular husband, wife becomes Adam and Eve.
Now it's about good and evil.
And so instead of vines going up, it suddenly is like a snake.
The evil coming in.
Today, people are starting to remember what their traditions were in the past.
- And the Castillo family are now coming back to what their great, great, great grandparents did before the conquest.
- So we have this space called Ofrenda to honor the people that die.
And so this Ofrenda is to honor my father and his life.
- Veronica Castillo has been teaching this skill of making, these works in clay to the Mexican American women of San Antonio for 17 years.
She has kept up the tradition of her family, but she's also gone beyond, what anybody in her family has done.
And we have been honored to have her.
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Now PlayingCeramic tree of life artist Veronica Castillo
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Clip: S5 | 5m 37s | Ceramic tree of life artist Veronica Castillo featured in the HOLIDAY episode (5m 37s)
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Woodcarver Harley Refsal sharpens knife
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Woodcarver Harley Refsal carves holiday figure
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Veronica Castillo builds a Tree of Life - Assembling
Clip: S5 Ep2 | 4m 59s | Veronica Castillo builds a Tree of Life - Assembling the Tree of Life (4m 59s)
Veronica Castillo builds a Tree of Life - Arms & Base
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Veronica Castillo builds a Tree of Life - Angel
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Ceramic artist Susan Garson builds a bird menorah
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