Making things out of colored tissue paper has long been a Mexican folk tradition. One of the common names for the material, papél de China, or Chinese paper, gives us a clue as to its origin. Paperwork was apparently among the imports that poured in from the Orient on the annual Pacific treasure fleet that plied its way between the Far East and Acapulco, laden with such exotic goods as silver, ivory, spices, and porcelain. Once the craft arrived in Mexico it became the basis for many important and widespread folk art forms.

Piñatas may well be Italian in origin. They are basically clay pots (or, in the United States, paper maché vessels) which have been converted into fantastic shapes with paper maché and then covered with cut, fringed, and colored tissue paper. They are filled with candies or other small favors and suspended above the scene of a party. Blindfolded party guests take turns trying to hit the piñata with a bat. At last the vessel is broken and a mad scramble ensues for the cascading goodies.

Like piñatas, cascarones are made to be destroyed. A cascarón, at its simplest, is a blown eggshell which has been filled with confetti. It is then broken over the heads of fellow fiesta goers. But cascarones can get much more complicated than that. Here in southern Arizona the eggshell is decorated with paints, glue and glitter, or marking pens, often with elaborate and imaginative patterns. It is then placed on the end of a cone of newspaper, which in turn is covered with cut and fringed papél de China. Some cascarones are such works of art that it seems a shame to break them.

Paper flowers are used in many ways. They decorate booths at fiestas, they appear on altars, and assembled into wreaths, they beautify the grave on All Souls Day, November 2nd, the time when most Mexican families remember their departed relatives. Mind you, we aren't just talking about paper flowers, but paper roses, paper carnations, paper zinnias, and on and on. Each of these folk artists of papél de China is well known within her community. Each one uses her skills to make the world a little brighter and more beautiful. And each one continues a tradition that has been living and growing in Mexico for over 200 years, the tradition of enlivening festive occasions with a set of techniques and materials that have their origins in the Far East.

Gloria Moroyoqui de Roques was born in Campo Mil Cientodos in the valley of the Yaqui near Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico. She lived there until she was 14, when her family moved to Ciudad Obregón. She never attended school but learned to read and write on her own. Her mother taught her to make paper flowers and piñatas as well as to cook and sew. Gloria says that she can make any kind of flower just by looking at it, perhaps twenty or thirty kinds. She is married and has two grown children, Manuel and Gloria Luz. She and her husband moved to Nogales, Sonora sixteen years ago. Gloria not only demonstrates her arts here on weekends, but has been a participant in the annual Tumacácori Fiesta since 1984.