Sandra Cisneros Talks Dia de Los Muertos

Sandra Cisneros, the author of the classic The House on Mango Street who now lives in Mexico, believes she has an ideal slogan for her new land."Mexico - it's a good place to die," Cisneros says with a laugh.

"There, the dead co-exist with the living every day. The past and the present come together and mix," she explained.

Cisneros signs books for admirers 

Raised in Chicago as a Mexican-American celebrating the language and the ways of her native land to the south, Cisneros says that she has come to believe that death is "letting go".  However, much is left for those who survive, she quickly adds.

"When a parent dies, suddenly you have a spirit ally that is with you always," she said. "I know that sounds new age-y, but it is our miseducation that has caused us to rename it superstition."

Cisneros was present in the room when her mother died. "There was a moving, a shimmering around the room. I had a feeling that was tender and sweet, not like my mother at all," she said, eliciting laughter from the audience.

"I became a writer because my mother was an unhappy mother," Cisneros said. Her mother was "an artistic soul" who was constantly going to cultural centers and events, she explained. "I used to think it was for our sake, but I realize now it was for her," the author, who was one of 7 children, said.

One of those cultural centers was the library. "To me the library was a wonderful house ... a house of ideas ... a house of silence," Cisneros said.

As a writer, Cisneros said she writes "whatever comes. I write this, I write that. The only reason I finish anything is because somebody in New York gives me a deadline. I began writing when I was most lonely in middle school. I wasn't the pretty girl ... I wasn't the smart girl ... I was the new girl with the bad haircut because my mother was always cutting my bangs crooked."

Cisneros indicated that she has no intention to stop writing. "Each book gets me closer to the path I am supposed to be walking," she said.

Sandra Cisneros' Ofrenda for Her Mother
 @The Museum of American History

This Day of the Dead altar departs from the traditional public Mexican altar by featuring my mother’s personal space – her garden and bedroom – and personal objects as part of an homage remembering her as a dynamic creative being in her own right. Gathering the items here, some from my grandmother and great-grandmother, helped me look deeply and see my mother as a woman with her own life apart from her family and children. In the end, it served, as art often does, to transform grief to celebration. Thanks to my mother’s deep hunger to become an artist, she opened the path for me. This altar is my gracias to her. - Sandra Cisneros

Happy 200th to the Star-Spangled Banner

DC's Smithsonian museums (there are 17 of them here in the city) are among America's most visited and treasured places. But the Smithsonian also publishes a series of some of the most interesting, fact-filled blogs appearing anywhere on the internet. Each Sunday, The Prices Do DC re-posts an entry either about the Smithsonian or that 1st appeared in 1 of the institution's blogs. Hope you enjoy and maybe we'll see you soon at the Smithsonian.

On a rainy September 13, 1814, British warships sent a downpour of shells and rockets onto Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor, relentlessly pounding the American fort for 25 hours. The bombardment, known as the Battle of Baltimore, came only weeks after the British had attacked Washington, D.C., burning the Capitol, the Treasury and the President's house. It was another chapter in the ongoing War of 1812.

A week earlier, Francis Scott Key, a 35-year-old American lawyer, had boarded the flagship of the British fleet on the Chesapeake Bay in hopes of persuading the British to release a friend who had recently been arrested. Key's tactics were successful, but because he and his companions had gained knowledge of the impending attack on Baltimore, the British did not let them go. They allowed the Americans to return to their own vessel but continued guarding them. Under their scrutiny, Key watched on September 13 as the barrage of Fort McHenry began eight miles away.

"It seemed as though mother earth had opened and was vomiting shot and shell in a sheet of fire and brimstone," Key wrote later. But when darkness arrived, Key saw only red erupting in the night sky. Given the scale of the attack, he was certain the British would win. The hours passed slowly, but in the clearing smoke of "the dawn's early light" on September 14, he saw the American flag—not the British Union Jack—flying over the fort, announcing an American victory.

Key put his thoughts on paper while still on board the ship, setting his words to the tune of a popular English song. His brother-in-law, commander of a militia at Fort McHenry, read Key's work and had it distributed under the name "Defence of Fort M'Henry." The Baltimore Patriot newspaper soon printed it, and within weeks, Key's poem, now called "The Star-Spangled Banner," appeared in print across the country, immortalizing his words—and forever naming the flag it celebrated.

To continue reading this story, which 1st appeared in Smithsonian.Com, click here.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It

More on the Star Spangled Banner

Fragments of the Star-Spangled Banner may still be floating around. (from USA Today)

Is it time to ditch the Star-Spangled Banner? (from Politico)

Back to the 60s: Science and Technology

1964. The Beatles had kicked off the musical British Invasion. LBJ was president. The Cold War was heating up in places like Vietnam. A World's Fair in New York City was promising a new tomorrow of technology and wonder.  And on January 23 of that year the Smithsonian opened the Museum of American History.

Today, all of the above are gone with the exception of the History Museum. To celebrate its founding year, the facility is showcasing 3 exhibits dealing with the time of its early 1960s establishment.

Here is a post of 1 of those exhibits including pictures of some of what you will see if you visit.

When the museum first opened it doors, it was called the Museum of History and Technology.

In 1980, the museum was renamed The National Museum of American History to represent its mission of the collection, care, study, and interpretation of objects that reflect the experience of the American people.

However, despite the name change, the museum continues to showcase science, technological, and health advances as they relate to the American experience.

In the early 1960s, we searched the skies as students hid under desks as part of nuclear drills.

In the early 1960s, scientists began making models of DNA and other genetics.

A look at early calculating and computing

Back to the 60s: History and Culture

1964. The Beatles had kicked off the musical British Invasion. LBJ was president. The Cold War was heating up in places like Vietnam. A World's Fair in New York City was promising a new tomorrow of technology and wonder.  And on January 23 of that year the Smithsonian opened the Museum of American History.

Today, all of the above are gone with the exception of the History Museum. To celebrate its founding year, the facility is showcasing 3 exhibits dealing with the time of its early 1960s establishment.

Here is a post of 1 of those exhibits including pictures of some of what you will see if you visit.

Of course, as a history museum, the Smithsonian Museum of American History deals with ... are you ready for this ... history.

But history is more than just dry facts and forgettable dates that you may have suffered in a boring history class. It is people, and activism, and service, and culture, and the arts and entertainment. It's lunch boxes and LPs. It's signs and sounds. It's from the past and gone, but it still has a life and lives. Sort of like these things:

Back to the 60s - Mustang Sally Special

1964. The Beatles had kicked off the musical British Invasion. LBJ was president. The Cold War was heating up in places like Vietnam. A World's Fair in New York City was promising a new tomorrow of technology and wonder.  And on January 23 of that year the Smithsonian opened the Museum of American History.

Today, all of the above are gone with the exception of the History Museum. To celebrate its founding year, the facility is showcasing 3 exhibits dealing with the time of its early 1960s establishment.

Here is a post of 1 of those exhibits including pictures of some of what you will see if you visit.

In April of 1964, the Ford Motor Company debuted its Ford Mustang at its pavilion at the New York World's Fair, 6 months before it normally would. The company promised that this was a new type of car for a new generation.

It had a sporty look, a compact size, and, for the time, a low price. It evoked the spirit and the excitement of the open road. Unlike Ford's actual sports car. the T-Bird, it could seat 4 people.

Immediately the 1964 car seen in the picture above did live up to its trendsetting pledge. By 1966, more than 1 million Mustangs had been sold. It had even become the subject of a top-selling record by Wilson Pickett.

The Mustang was shepherded through production by a young man who himself would become quiet a name in the auto industry. That man was Lee Iacocca.

Trace the Earliest Steps on the Yellow Brick Road

DC's Smithsonian museums (there are 17 of them here in the city) are among America's most treasured and visited places. But the Smithsonian also publishes a series of some of the most interesting, fact-filled blogs appearing anywhere on the internet. Each Sunday, The Prices Do DC re-posts an entry about the Smithsonian, many of which appeared in 1 of the institution's blogs. Hope you enjoy and maybe we'll see you soon at the Smithsonian.

The Ruby Slippers are in display in the Museum of American Histroy

We dimmed the lights. In our pajamas, we huddled together under a blanket. The annual television broadcast of The Wizard of Oz was a national ritual when we baby boomers were kids. It would be years before I saw the Technicolor land of Oz bloom outside Dorothy’s black-and-white farmhouse, as we didn’t have a color TV. Years, too, before I would come up with the idea for a novel, Wicked, which inspired the Broadway musical.

Thanks to MGM’s 1939 film, Dorothy’s adventure in Oz has become a foundation myth of American culture. On a recent afternoon in my study, I pored over a photocopy of a touchstone memento from the film—a typewritten studio script. The original, in the collections of the National Museum of American History and dated May 4, 1938, consists of about 100 pages. Though other writers, including lyricist E. Y. Harburg, who penned “Over the Rainbow,” would refine and polish the story, this draft is the work of Noel Langley. He based the script on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel for children, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

To continue reading this post, which 1st appeared in Smithsonian.com, click here.

It's Back to the 60s

DC's Smithsonian museums (there are 17 of them here in the city) are among America's most treasured and visited places. But the Smithsonian also publishes a series of some of the most interesting, fact-filled blogs appearing anywhere on the internet. Each Sunday, The Prices Do DC re-posts an entry that initially appeared in one of those highly-readable blogs. Hope you enjoy and maybe we'll see you soon at the Smithsonian

The Acid Test

Pop goes the 60s

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its opening to the public by showcasing a Ford Mustang made in 1964 and taking a look at the early 1960s from the aspects of culture, technology and science in two exhibition cases. 

The displays will be surrounded by newspaper headlines that will appear as floor graphics and set the stage for transporting visitors back to the year in which civil rights legislation passed, American casualties in Vietnam rose, the Beatles arrived and IBM announced its System 360, a mainframe computer-system family.

“The early 1960s found Americans caught between the optimism of a future where humankind could reach the moon and the pessimism brought about by President Kennedy’s assassination,” said John Gray, director of the museum. “Much like today, technological advances were changing American culture and life in complex ways. We help our visitors understand the complexities of the past; by learning about our rich history, we can be better prepared to move forward despite the difficulties or uncertainties the future may bring.”

To continue reading this post, which 1st appeared in Smithsonian Newsdesk, click here.

Friday Flashback - Puppetry @The Smithsonian

This post 1st appeared in The Prices Do DC last month. It makes an appropriate Friday Flashback entry since this weekend our grandkids Audrey and Owen are visiting us from Atlanta and we will be taking them to see this exhibit, as well as a special workshop on puppetry.

Puppetry is one of the oldest types of performance art in America. Now, at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, a new exhibition traces the history of the subject from colonial times to the TV shows of today.

Early American hand puppets

The earliest traditions of puppetry were established by immigrants from Great Britain, France, and Italy who traveled from town to town putting on street and park performances. In the early 20th Century, puppets and their puppet masters became an integral part of vaudeville stage performances across the country.

In the 1930s, Edgar Bergen and his sidekick Charlie McCarthy brought the idea of puppetry to the new media of radio. In 1969, Jim Henson and his staff brought the Muppets to the children's show Sesame Street. With Kermit, Oscar, and the beloved duo of Bert and Ernie, puppet popularity encountered an explosion which continues to today. In fact, it was the donation of 21 of Henson's most beloved creations to the museum in October of last year which paved the way for the current exhibition.

The California Raisin made sure they were heard through the grapevine in 1986

The exhibit, which delights youngsters of all ages, examines puppets from the beginnings of America until today. Included are examples of:

• Asian shadow puppets
• hand puppets
• marionnettes 
• paper puppets
• ventriloquist's puppets
• finger puppets 
• stop-motion puppets and
• Muppets

But no matter what the type of puppet is used, the art of puppetry really depends on 3 factors: a puppet, the imagination of a manipulator, and an audience willing to suspend belief and accept the puppet as "real."

Youngsters who get excited about the exhibit, can indulge their puppetry fantasies at the special gift shop

Little Golden Books Make History

Prior to World War II, books for young readers were too expensive for most families to buy. But in 1947, Little Golden Books were introduced, a series of some classic, but mostly new, affordable books designed for readers between the ages of 3 and 8.

Initially, the books were sold in five and dime, grocery, and drug stores for 25 cents each. Of course, stimulating an interest in reading was one of the main purposes of the series which became wildly popular. But publishers also were credited with pushing " a democratization of education for the 20th Century."

Unlike previous children's books, the series didn't focus exclusively on nursery rhymes and fairy and folk tales. Instead, many of the stories concentrated on everyday life. One expert in literature for the young said the books featured stories that would giving "little grownups" a glimpse of "the duties of caring for home and the everyday family," promote the cultural norms of the 1950's, and create active citizens.

Doctor Dan and Nurse Nancy

Of course, as decades changed, the types of Golden Books offered also changed. New titles were added to reflect the societal values of the times in which they were published. In the late 1950's and early 1960's, the books became one of the 1st examples of product placement. Johnson and Johnson junior-size band-aids were included in each copy of Doctor Dan and Nurse Nancy. Television began to play a dominant role in titles. Such characters as Hopalong Cassidy, Howdy Doody, Bugs Bunny, and Lassie appeared. Over the ensuing years, those TV characters have included favorites from Sesame Street, Disney, and The Power Rangers.

And now the books, originally published in a partnership between Simon and Schuster and Western Printing and Lithographing Company in Racine, Wisconsin, have officially been declared a piece of history. An exhibition detailing the story of the 65-year old series is now on display at the National Museum of American History.

The exhibition features some of 500 original illustrations, books, coloring books, and puzzles that the Smithsonian received from the Western Printing firm in 1992.

Little Golden Books has been a financial success. More than a billion and half books have been sold. Of course, that 25-cent price tag is now history. Today, the books cost $3.59 on Amazon.

But some things haven't changed. For example, The Pokey Little Puppy, which was one of the first 12 titles published, is essentially the same story that appeared in 1947. And it has proven to be extremely popular. Officials say  more than 15 million copies of the book have been sold, making it the most popular title in the series.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips

The advent of Little Golden Books predates my arrival on the planet by 5 years. As a voracious childhood reader, I amassed quite a collection of the books. I kept a few of my favorites for my son Michael, who was born in 1973. He added newer ones. On his most recent trip to DC, I introduced my 4-year-old grandson, Owen to the series. He chose How Do Penguins Play? But there was a huge difference in the way the 3 of us purchased our books, a difference that dramatically demonstrates how much change has occurred in 60 years. While I got the majority of my titles from the Woolworth's Five and Ten store in my South Jersey hometown and Michael got his from the Kids section in local bookstores, Owen got his with a push of a button. He and I went to Amazon, he picked out his title, and in less than a minute, the book, with all its colorful illustrations, was on my Kindle ready to read.

Out to Lunch: A Brief History of Metal Lunch Boxes

Historians say you can learn a lot about a people and their culture by studying what they ate. But, as a current exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History proves, you can also tell a lot about a culture by viewing what they carried their food in.

Fittingly installed outside the main cafeteria at the museum is a collection of about 75 classic American metal lunch boxes from the mid- 19th Century until the 1980's.  Before their meal, older visitors can work up an appetite by taking a nostalgic trip down lunchtime memory lane and hear fellow visitors say "Hey, I had that one."

When America was primarily an agricultural society, there was little need for boxes to carry lunch in. Farmers and their helpers could simply return to their homes for a noontime meal before returning for more afternoon work.

But after the Civil War, as the nation became more and more industrialized, workers began carrying their lunch to work in small, plain metal buckets since they now worked too far away from their homes to break for a meal. About 100 years ago, as more and more students began attending schools, mothers began sending their lunches in empty decorated tobacco or cigar tins. The lunch boxes were joined in 1904 by their partner, the metal Thermos vacuum bottle which could keep drinks hot or cold.

First they were for adults ...

... then reused tobacco and cigar boxes for kids ...

... and finally TV and cartoons.

In the 1950's, the advent of television changed the look of the student lunch box. Studios discovered the idea

of using the metal boxes to give exposure to the TV programs aimed at young audiences. The lunch box shifted from a mere conveyance into a personal story teller. Historians point to this popular item as one of the beginnings of a sales market targeted exclusively to young people. Since westerns were a staple of this era, cowboy and western lunch boxes - Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone - were extremely popular.

In the 1960's, companies, anxious to continue sales, expanded lunch box scenarios to include music groups (like The Beatles) and athletes (like Mickey Mantle).  Girls also became a prime target with countless Barbie variations. In the late 1960's and early 1970's, older students could demonstrate their hipness by carrying lunch boxes featuring pop art and psychedelic designs. The Cold War (Get Smart, the Man from Uncle, and other spy and combat themes) were popular. By the 1970's, movie blockbusters like Star Wars ruled the lunch box field.

But in the mid-1980's, the metal boxes were replaced with ones constructed by less costly synthetic materials, which also didn't rust and were easier to keep clean. The time of the metal lunch box was over for all but collectors and exhibits of historical artifacts like the one here at the museum.

Tales,Tidbits, and Tips
If you would like to learn more about the lunch boxes on display, you can read the article "The History of the Lunch Box" which appeared in The Smithsonian magazine by clicking here. To learn about collecting vintage lunch boxes, click here.