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Figurines from Mexico watch over Lea Ramsdell鈥檚 office.

Lea Ramsdell is so well traveled in Spanish-speaking Latin America that it鈥檚 easier for her to list the countries she hasn鈥檛 yet visited: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela. Ramsdell is a professor of Spanish with an intense wanderlust, and the bookshelves in her office are filled with musical instruments (she teaches a class on Latino cultural identity through music) and cultural keepsakes that she buys on her adventures. She picked up these figurines at a market in Mexico City in 2005, when she led a 快活视频Study Abroad trip there. Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday that鈥檚 celebrated on November 1 and 2, when art like this is displayed on altars and in windows throughout the country. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a time to remember the dead, but it鈥檚 also a time to realize your mortality and not be afraid of it,鈥� Ramsdell says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also a time to make social commentary. In a way they鈥檙e making fun of people in high society. They鈥檙e very dressed up and elegant, but they鈥檙e skeletons. She looks like she thinks she鈥檚 really something, but she鈥檚 still mortal after all.鈥� The design of the female skeleton鈥檚 dress conjures nationalistic images, Ramsdell says. Both the Mexican flag and the dress feature a green, white and red color scheme and include an image of a cactus with an eagle perched atop it eating a serpent. 鈥淭hat was the signal for the Aztecs, who were a nomadic tribe at one point,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey were to search for this cactus with an eagle on top of it eating a serpent and build their homeland there.鈥� The figures are made of papier-m芒ch茅, so they鈥檙e extremely light. Ramsdell thinks she bought them for $15 or $20鈥攑ricey by Mexican standards at the time. 鈥淚 find it fascinating to go to different cultures and see the kinds of things that are important to the people there,鈥� she says. 鈥淧opular culture appeals to me. I studied literature and civilization, and I love that, but something about the common person and what they find important, I鈥檓 really drawn to that. That鈥檚 exactly what this is about. These are an expression of the common person, not necessarily a trained professional artist. This wouldn鈥檛 be considered high art, but that鈥檚 exactly why I like it.鈥�