Gr 3–6— Tonatiuh’s latest delves into the life of artist and social commentator extraordinaire José Guadalupe Posada, best known for his literary calaveras , brief and amusing rhyming poems about skeletons dressed in clothes, going about their daily business. The beautifully expressive Day of the Dead-inspired illustrations on heavy paper pages sport borders of bones, grinning skeletons, and Tonatiuh’s signature figures shown in profile, influenced by the ancient Mexican art of his ancestors. Simple yet effective sentences accompany step-by-step images detailing the artistic processes that Posada learned as a printer’s apprentice: lithography, engraving, and etching. Reproductions of Posada’s calaveras will help children appreciate Posada’s passion for his profession, such as the broadside “Calavera Love,” which depicts a gentleman skeleton proposing marriage; the poem concludes, “I am sorry, Señor. But that cannot be./You’re handsome and all,/but too skinny for me!” Tonatiuh explains the poetry, posing questions about the artist’s intentions and adding historical context, explaining the calaveras that Posada created in response to the Mexican Revolution. Extensive back matter includes links where students can see Posada’s original work and an author’s note that suggests using the calaveras “to learn and celebrate el Dia de Muertos.”
Landslide at the Calaveras Reservoir
Big construction projects are rarely straightforward. The new San FranciscoOakland Bay Bridge is a prime example, thanks to unexpected problems with the steel. But there, at least, nature was not to blame. This week a long-running dam project made the news when a geological discovery forced the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to move millions of dollars around and push back its schedule by three years. Big excavations are like exploratory surgery, no matter how carefully planned, because mapping the underground is never certain.
The Calaveras Reservoir dam, east of Milpitas, is a massive earthen structure built across Calaveras Creek in 1925. These traditional dam designs are generally robustthe Crystal Springs Reservoir on the Peninsula has one that easily weathered the 1906 earthquake while the fault moved beneath it. However, the Calaveras Dam needed more work. The reservoir needs to be a reliable six-month backup water supply in case the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct is out of action. And what could damage the aqueduct? Among other things, a major earthquake on the Calaveras fault, which happens to run right under the Calaveras Reservoir next to the dam.
The plan for meeting this dire scenario was to build a new dam just downstream of the old one. It will use the existing hills on either side of the creek as buttresses and be largely made of the rock excavated from the hills. The work was proceeding without incident until June of last year when excavators on the western buttress found signs of a huge, ancient landslide in the Temblor Formation.
Cutting into the hillslope under those circumstances would risk reactivating the slide, which could endanger the workers and threaten the new dam ever afterward. So now they will cut deeper to create a shallower slope, producing about a million and a half cubic yards of extra rubble and pushing the construction schedule back three years.
Here’s a view of the project as seen looking south from Sunol Regional Wilderness in July 2012. The reservoir, its water level drawn down for safety reasons, is just visible between the two cuts making up the buttresses for the new dam. The cut on the left (the right bank of Calaveras Creek) is in bluish metamorphic rock of the Franciscan Complex, and the cut on the right is in the much younger brown sandstone of the Temblor Formation. (The chopped-up hill in the middle is downstream from the dam site; the creek runs around it on the left side.)
The landslide was discovered in the Temblor Formation. Here’s the part of the Alameda County geologic map that covers the area. The photo above was taken from roughly the “25” mark at the top of the map. The solid black lines running north-south down the middle are major strands of the Calaveras fault.
The amended dam plan, filed with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission last December, shows an east-west cross section of the dam site. The extra digging will happen on the left side to create a slope that is less steep and more stable.
I have to say a little about the Temblor Formation, which occurs mostly in the southern Central Valley beneath the Monterey Formation. It gets its name from the Temblor Range, where its type section was described. And the Temblor Range got its name after the great 1857 earthquake ripped through the area. It’s a coarse-grained marine sandstone full of fossils, and this spot appears to be its northernmost outcropright next to another earthquake fault.
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The Temblor is strong stone, but landslides can affect any kind of rock if it’s fractured enough. And around major faults like the Calaveras, everything can be assumed to be fractured. The mountains of the Bay Area look beautiful and strong, but watch them for a few thousand years and you’ll find them rather crumbly. Alternatively, scientists with the right equipment can survey the ground with millimeter precision. In the Bay Area’s steeper hills they have detected many large, old landslides that are creeping very slowly, as they have for centuries. Maybe the landslide at the dam site was just pausing for breath. Better for the Calaveras Reservoir project to get this one out of the way.
Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras
illus. by Duncan Tonatiuh. 40p. bibliog. glossary. index. websites. Abrams. 2015. RTE $18.95. ISBN 9781419716478. LC 2014042319.
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Gr 3–6— Tonatiuh’s latest delves into the life of artist and social commentator extraordinaire José Guadalupe Posada, best known for his literary calaveras , brief and amusing rhyming poems about skeletons dressed in clothes, going about their daily business. The beautifully expressive Day of the Dead-inspired illustrations on heavy paper pages sport borders of bones, grinning skeletons, and Tonatiuh’s signature figures shown in profile, influenced by the ancient Mexican art of his ancestors. Simple yet effective sentences accompany step-by-step images detailing the artistic processes that Posada learned as a printer’s apprentice: lithography, engraving, and etching. Reproductions of Posada’s calaveras will help children appreciate Posada’s passion for his profession, such as the broadside “Calavera Love,” which depicts a gentleman skeleton proposing marriage; the poem concludes, “I am sorry, Señor. But that cannot be./You’re handsome and all,/but too skinny for me!” Tonatiuh explains the poetry, posing questions about the artist’s intentions and adding historical context, explaining the calaveras that Posada created in response to the Mexican Revolution. Extensive back matter includes links where students can see Posada’s original work and an author’s note that suggests using the calaveras “to learn and celebrate el Dia de Muertos.”
VERDICT A stunning work, with great possibilities for lesson plans or tie-ins with Day of the Dead.
Reviewed by Toby Rajput, National Louis University, Skokie, IL
Artist José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1915) didn’t invent calaveras, the iconic skeletons associated with Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebration, but they attained their greatest popularity during the twenty-four years that he drew them. Posada died poor and relatively unknown, but interest in his work grew steadily after his death, and now Tonatiuh brings his story to a child audience. In his signature flat illustrative style reminiscent of the Mixtec (an indigenous Mesoamerican people) codex, Tonatiuh digitally layers various colors and textures onto simple, black-outlined line drawings. Appropriately, Posada’s own artwork also plays a prominent role in the book and provides a nice complement to Tonatiuh’s illustrations, especially in a series of broadsides that ask the reader to consider the relationship between art and politics in Mexican culture. The straightforward narrative incorporates biographical highlights and personal anecdotes, while extended sidebars illustrate the different processes of lithography, engraving, and etching (one of which contains a small error). An author’s note, glossary, bibliography, and index round out the full assort-ment of nonfiction features, making this book a worthy successor to Tonatiuh’s 2015 Belpré– and Sibert honor–winning Separate Is Never Equal (rev. 7/14). Jonathan Hunt
José Guadalupe Posada (18521915) didn’t invent those iconic Day of the Dead skeletons, but they attained their greatest popularity during the years he drew them. Tonatiuh, in his signature flat illustrative style, digitally layers various colors and textures onto simple, black-outlined drawings; Posada’s own artwork also plays a prominent role. The straightforward narrative incorporates biographical highlights and personal anecdotes; extended sidebars illustrate printing processes. Bib., glos., ind.
*6-Game Music Detective Bundle – Elementary Music – PowerPoint & SMART Notebook
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Frida Kahlo Sugar Skull
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Art More Often
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for her many self portraits and her works inspired by the nature of Mexico. This project uses her inspiration along with the Mexican tradition of making sugar skulls or calaveras. Sugar skulls are used to celebrate Dia de los Meurtos.This a great project to introduce littles to Frida Kahlo and Dia de los Meurtos! Included is a demonstration video that introduces Kahlo and there is also a Frida Kahlo coloring page that you can use for early finishers.
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Elementary , Middle, High School Art: Self Portrait, Pop Art, Printmaking Project
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Look Between the Lines
This elementary art, middle school art or high school art project pack includes a personalized art project that teaches students about scratch foam printmaking. Students take a selfie and edit it to transfer their portrait to scratch foam to print with. The final print is colored in for a pop art, Andy Warhol, look. Designed for 5th grade but perfect through 9th grade, a great way to introduce scratch foam printmaking and printmaking in general to students. This art lesson is fun, adaptable to a
