A kaleidoscope of butterflies, a moon rising at sea, a security camera—the piñata is this and more at Craft in America’s “Piñatas: The High Art of Celebration” exhibit in Los Angeles. The show, open through December 4th, elevates what is typically considered a party activity to a more apt classification: The piñata as art, often overlooked, meticulously crafted.
It’s natural to dismiss piñatas as throwaway objects when the majority of them are ephemeral. But before the first palo (“stick”) strikes the form, there were human hands on it. Hands guiding it through construction, dressing, and decoration. There is no mass manufacturing of piñatas. Every single piñata in existence has been created by a person—and some are designed to last.
“Most of these pieces, every layer of tissue is laid on by hand, one piece at a time. It’s cut by hand. It’s created and built and put together by hand,” said La Piñata Design Studio’s Yesenia Prieto at a recent Craft in America panel.
The seven-pointed star is one of the most traditional piñata forms, according to Craft in America Center director and curator Emily Zaiden. The points symbolize Christianity’s seven deadly sins. When someone shatters the “sins,” the party favors scattered on the ground are said to be blessings from God. Burros (“donkeys”) were once piñata mainstays but have lost favor to branded character piñatas like Disney princesses, Baby Yoda, or Pokémon, all of which may look slightly “off” due to decorative changes made to avoid copyright issues.
Piñatas have become so ubiquitous in American culture and abroad that the form was a finalist for the 2021 Toy Hall of Fame at the Strong National Museum of Play, alongside nominees like Cabbage Patch Kids and Battleship. Microsoft released four Viva Piñata games for Xbox between 2006 and 2008, and even The Masked Singer Australia incorporated a piñata into its 2021 season (unveiled as rugby player Lote Tuqiri).
One thing that sets piñatas apart from other crafts is the immediacy in which designs adapt to the zeitgeist. Piñatas also have the unique characteristic of either being disposable or high art. “This is a show of artists who use piñata processes to make artworks that are not intended to be destroyed but who use this whole language of what piñatas are to make their own statements and messages about identity politics, economics, housing, the COVID pandemic—a whole range of topics,” said Zaiden.
The gamut of topics is apparent at the Craft in America show which features a vaccine vial piñata by Lisbeth Palacios, a COVID-19 piñata by Amazing Piñatas, and a Zoom laptop piñata by Amorette Crespo of Party Girl Piñatas. Crespo makes every piñata sold on her Etsy shop from her home in the El Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Zoom laptop is one of her biggest sellers. As one Etsy reviewer attested, “The laptop piñata was a huge hit (pun intended), looked fantastic and, as it turned out, it’s surprisingly therapeutic to hit Zoom with a broom handle.”
While piñata proceedings provide release in some instances, there are also perils. Swinging at a piñata is dangerous for onlookers. Being spun around blindfolded is disorienting. The scramble that ensues once the piñata is primal.
“It brings out this really violent moment in everybody where you’re destroying this thing and smashing it to bits and then shoving your way to the loot and grabbing the loot from everyone. If you look at it at how that whole performative part of piñatas goes, it’s dark,” said Zaiden.
Even more alarming is the piñata industry’s destructive toll on piñateros (piñata makers) who are producing the items at breakneck pace. “[The piñata is] built as fast as possible because you’re only paid a dollar to two dollars at most for a piece,” Prieto said. “You have to make, make, make. My cousin used to tell me, ‘It doesn’t matter how good you are. It matters how fast you are.’”
Since making a living from crafting piñatas depends on the quantity produced, some creators turn to methamphetamine and uppers to keep up with demand. Lorena Robletto, a former social worker, artist, and owner of Amazing Piñatas, told Craft America attendees, “They have to find the energy. Somehow they have to figure it out. ‘How am I going to build 40-50 piñatas a day so I can make enough to support my family?’ So they become dependent on meth.”
Robletto—whose masterful, exquisitely designed alebrije (a mythical creature of Mexican folk art) greets museum visitors with its green-eyed, winged, and gold-horned glory—has worked with immigrant artists in the piñata industry for decades. She said that substance abuse is a common consequence of a demanding job requiring long hours. Besides the mental and physical effects of substance abuse, there’s also the risk of being caught under the influence, handed over to immigration authorities, and deported.
Robletto said her most talented employees come from Mexico but often do not have the proper documentation to advocate for themselves. “It is unfair to think we can have these people perform at a certain level and not be impacted by the lifestyle they have, by the environment they have. There are faces behind those piñatas. Most of these are young families working hard, they come here pursuing the American Dream.”
That the conduit of families’ dreams can also lead to their demise reinforces the contrasting sides of the piñata tradition. Breaking a piñata is both joyful and violent; piñata-making requires an array of skills to produce an item that will ultimately be destroyed. “It’s insane how well versed in the art world you have to be to be a piñata artist,” Prieto said. “There’s so many different types of mediums that we’re using in terms of adhesives, in terms of materials like tissue, paper, vinyl. We’re messing with plastic, we’re messing with wood. We’re doing construction; we’re messing with Photoshop and graphic design.”
Piñateros and artists using piñata techniques come from a variety of disciplines, from sculpture to drawing and painting, to sound design, to video and performance. Each draws on their expertise to create pieces suited to a museum exhibition or in some cases, a swing or two away from distruction. Regardless of outcome, the human behind the piñata is its true worth.