Altar Installation by Amalia Mesa-Bains

This altar, An Ofrenda for Dolores del Rio by Amalia Mesa-Bains (1984, revised 1991), was on view in the exhibition “Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Mesa-Bains created this work to honor Dolores del Rio, the Mexican actress who dazzled audiences in the United States and Mexico from the 1920s until her death in 1983.