JUAREZ, MEXICO-When Belém Ramirez Avalos gently dips her hand in a pot of engrudo, or the traditional glue to build a piñata from scratch, she has three generations of expertise behind her. The art ...

From her shop in eastern Mexico City, Tania Hernandez begins making piñatas for the holiday season as early as October. That's because piñatas are essential to celebrating Christmas in Mexico.

The colorful piñatas are made from clay pots or cardboard covered with paper cones stuck on with glue. Once the cones are dry, they are covered in colorful paper maché. Many of the piñatas used at ...

Piñatas are a common element in parties across different countries and especially in Mexico around Christmas time. The story of their origin combines cultures, traditions and religions. Those colorful ...

Setting up the tree, hanging the lights, and planning the dinner are essentials for the Christmas celebration, but one element you can't skip is the traditional piñata. So, what's the special meaning ...

Aurora Ventura has been making piñatas for as long as she can remember. Growing up in Cuernavaca, Mexico, making piñatas played a big role in her childhood. “It’s something I (did) when I was a kid in ...

Roberto Benavidez "Illuminated Piñata No. 2" (2017) (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic) LOS ANGELES — If you grew up in and around a Mexican or Mexican-American community, you know that ...

Piñatas in a museum is an unlikely sight, but you can see 80 of these traditional cardboard and paper constructions in an exhibit at the Mingei International Museum. "Piñatas: The High Art of ...

Those colorful, swinging figures hanging at birthday parties shouldn't be dismissed as kid stuff, especially at this time of year. NPR's Alejandra Marquez Janse reports that in Mexico and in Mexican ...