Southwest Folklife Alliance

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • BorderLore
  • Griffith Archives
  • News & Events
  • Home
  • About
    • Board of Directors and Staff
    • Mission
    • University Partnership
    • Support
    • Media
    • SFA Field Notes
  • What We Do
    • Tucson Meet Yourself
    • Master-Apprentice Program
    • End of Life
    • BorderLore E-journal
    • Learning Folklife
    • Cultural Asset Mapping
    • Voz Frontera / Nogales Placemaking
    • Folklorist in Residence
  • Donate/Become A Member
  • Volunteer
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Archives for Artifact

El Molino

January 24, 2018 By SFA Staff 3 Comments

El Molino

  ARTIFACT: Electric corn grinder, molino SIZE: 5 x 3 x 4 ft FOLKLIFE: Food & foodways, kitchen tradition, gender roles, occupational folklore Illustration: Cara Gibson Story by Mele Martinez My father’s kitchen was an old, car garage in El Presidio neighborhood of downtown Tucson, Arizona. Outside, small plastic bags of ... [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: BorderLore Tagged With: Artifact

The Ubiquitous Virgin of Guadalupe

November 21, 2017 By SFA Staff Leave a Comment

The Ubiquitous Virgin of Guadalupe

by Jim Griffith, guest contributor Editor’s note: December 12 is the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, observed by Mexicans of the Catholic faith and many others, during which celebrations and fiestas are held in her honor. In Mexico City, those venerating her make pilgrimage to the Basilica of Guadalupe where her image is displayed. Here, ... [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: BorderLore Tagged With: Artifact, Places

La Santa Muerte: The folk saint who asks no questions

October 27, 2017 By SFA Staff Leave a Comment

La Santa Muerte: The folk saint who asks no questions

by Jim Griffith, guest contributor La Santa Muerte (“Holy Death” or “Saint Death”) is an extremely popular Mexican folk saint who is not recognized by the Catholic Church, even though her devotion shares much of its structure, behavior, and worldview with Catholicism. A personification of Death, she is frequently represented as a robed and ... [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: BorderLore Tagged With: Artifact, Ceremony & Ritual

Hello Kitty in Kimono: Exhibiting the Everyday Lives of Master Traditional Artists

September 25, 2017 By SFA Staff Leave a Comment

Hello Kitty in Kimono: Exhibiting the Everyday Lives of Master Traditional Artists

If there’s such a thing as a “master curator,” Leia Maahs qualifies as one. As the program manager of the Southwest Folklife Alliance, she handles a lot of people, information, and cultural expressions. And for the past few months, she’s been curating a special exhibit for Tucson Meet Yourself to showcase master traditional artists along with their ... [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: BorderLore Tagged With: Artifact, Handcrafted, Story & Heritage

An Ordinary Act: Bicycles as Vehicles for Change

April 24, 2017 By SFA Staff Leave a Comment

An Ordinary Act: Bicycles as Vehicles for Change

When Tucson native Vanessa Cascio was living in Chicago working long, odd hours as a social worker, she couldn’t always rely on public transit. So she bought a cheap, beat-up cruiser bicycle. The only problem was, she didn’t know how to ride a bike. “It’s not that I wasn’t allowed to ride growing up, but I had brothers and they were the ones who ... [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: BorderLore Tagged With: Artifact

Low & Slow: The Duke’s Car Club Preserves a Lowrider Culture

April 24, 2017 By SFA Staff Leave a Comment

Low & Slow: The Duke’s Car Club Preserves a Lowrider Culture

It’s a late April afternoon on Tucson’s Southside and the sun glints off the Kelly green paint job of a 1939 Chevrolet. Alfred Teran, Jr. gets in and plugs his phone into a portable set of speakers. Barry White sings his 1974 “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” and a pair of plush dice sways from the rearview mirror. As Teran, Jr. pulls away from the ... [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: BorderLore Tagged With: Artifact, Handcrafted

Hot Dogs on Wheels

April 24, 2017 By SFA Staff Leave a Comment

Hot Dogs on Wheels

Guest post by Jim Griffith Since the mid-1990s I have been photographing local decorated food trucks and carts, which I thought to be visually interesting. Many of the painted decorations have strong Mexican cultural content. The custom of naming and decorating trucks and businesses in fanciful ways is well established in urban Mexican ... [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: BorderLore Tagged With: Artifact, Food & Foodways

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »

About BorderLore

BorderLore is Southwest Folklife Alliance’s electronic journal, with more than 8000 subscribers.  Click here to subscribe.

The postings include interviews, short essays and commentaries on the diverse cultural assets in the region and the study of folklife in a plural society.

Editor: Dr. Maribel Alvarez
Managing Editor/Writer: Kimi Eisele
Former Editor (July 2012 - February 2017): Monica Surfaro-Spigelman

Previous issues of BorderLore Newsletter are archived here and here.

Write to us with your feedback, commentary and any suggestions or ideas:  swfolklife@gmail.com

March 2018 Issue

Mo’ Betta: A Conversation with Barbea Williams

Deeper than the Cut: The Dunbar Barber Academy

VIDEO: Line Dancing with the Tucson Slide Society

Thinking Like a Folklorist: Making Space for the Ancestral

Tag Cloud

Adornment Artifact Ceremony & Ritual Cross-Culture Currents Ecologies End of Life Food & Foodways Handcrafted Interview Master Artists Music and Dance Occupational Folklore Places Roundup Story & Heritage Thinking like a Folklorist TMY Festival Tucson Meet Yourself Verbal Arts Video stories

Copyright 2018 Southwest Folklife Alliance · Site design by Julie Ray Creative