Piñata makers have been busy crafting a specific style of punchable candy-stuffed characters — ICE agents, LA Material reported.
After aggressive immigration sweeps under the Trump administration hit Southern California over the last year, ICE agents have become one of the most requested and popular piñatas in Los Angeles’ Piñata District.
Karla Fuentes, who works at Navarro’s Party Supply, told LA Material that the store got its first order for an ICE agent just a week after immigration officers flooded the city. After that, many other orders for the tissue paper and cardboard figures started rolling in.
“It takes the federal government 42 days to train an ICE agent,” LA Material reported.
In July, that number is expected to rise to 71 days “after advocates, Democratic lawmakers, and former ICE officials publicly voiced concerns over the ‘deficient, defective, and broken’ training process.”
“The piñata makers of Los Angeles can turn one around in less than a week,” according to LA Material. “Strips of cardboard are cut to shape a figure; layer upon layer of newspaper is molded onto the shape to create a build; colorful tissue paper is slashed into shapes and shards that become an outfit and hair and Mod Podged on to bring the figure to life; then the face and other identifying elements — a crooked smile, a microphone, a soccer ball — are added until the piñata is ready.”
The move follows a long cultural tradition.
“Political humor has long been a form of resistance and social commentary in Mexico,” LA Material reported. “A piñata allows us to satirize, ridicule, and then beat the brakes off an effigy, a nonviolently violent act against an oppressive force.”
Another particular piñata has remained popular for more than a decade.
“The Donald Trump piñata never goes out of style. More than 10 years after his first presidential run, the president remains a figure many would relish hitting with a stick,” according to LA Material.
“There’s the Latino instinct,” a piñata maker named Saavedra told LA Material. “You want to beat the crap out of something, so you take it out on a piñata.”
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