Knives and Scissors

Related Content

• President's Day Weekend: Another Carmaggedon?
  February 14, 2012
• List: Why BART Might Cut Your Cell Service
  December 9, 2011
• Johannes Mehserle Cleared of Police Brutality Charges
  December 1, 2011
• David Lee Identified as Man Killed by BART
  November 22, 2011
• Linton Johnson, BART Spokesman, Reassigned to New Job
  November 14, 2011

More About

• San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District
• Herminia Albarran Romero
• Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
• Transportation
• Public Transportation

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Papel picado is the traditional Mexican art of cut-paper flaglike banners: The brightly colored railings along the 16th Street BART station are large-scale replicas of the form. In the olden days, artists would use sharp rocks and mallets to make incisions in stacks of the delicate paper, but this pracitice is slowly dying. Thanks, global capitalism, for forcing people away from village life and towards factory jobs in urban centers! Thankfully, some people still make papel picado by hand, albeit with newfangled scissors and art knives and stuff. Papel Picado Workshops spring up around this time of year, since the colorful paper with its ephemeral nature is an important accoutrement for Dia de los Muertes celebrations. If you're reading this early, two workshops with the master of the form, Herminia Albarran Romero, happen on Oct. 18 and 25 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. Today's workshop is in time for the holiday, but organizers emphasize that papel picado is really kinda perfect anytime you need a little color in your life.
Tue., Oct. 28, 6:30 p.m., 2008