How decorative star-shaped piñatas sustain livelihoods and ritual life in Mexico
In this reported piece for Contralínea, journalist Fernanda Monroy takes us into the family workshops and neighbourhood markets of Mexico City, where brightly coloured star-shaped piñata decorations are patiently made by hand, year after year, in the lead up to Christmas. Once finished, the piñatas will be used as adornment for traditional “posadas” – ritualised re-enactments of the story of Mary and Joseph looking for shelter before the birth of their child.
Monroy begins in La Magdalena Mixhuca, near the Jamaica market, where the Alcaraz Estrella family has turned three adjoining homes into a piñata workshop that spills onto the street each December. Here, unfinished bodies of piñatas stretch along the pavement, some towering over two metres tall, while newspapers, tissue paper, cardboard, and glue are stacked inside repurposed fridges and rooms. The work moves smoothly because, as Monroy observes, the knowledge now lives in the artisans’ hands.
Seventeen-year-old Luis Alberto Alcaraz represents the continuity of this knowledge. He has been making piñatas with his family since he was twelve, learning both the standard “posada” size – 60-70cm across – and more monumental custom-made stars that seem to defy gravity. His aunt, Vanesa Alcaraz Estrella, explains that around twenty family members are involved in the trade, which began generations ago not as a business, but as a way of making enough piñatas for a family celebration. Over time, that impulse to share turned into a livelihood.
Across markets like Xochimilco, Monroy meets other artisans, including Eduardo Romero and Teresa Rodríguez, whose families have sold star piñatas for decades. Their testimonies chart how the craft has adapted. Clay, once central to piñata making, have largely been replaced by paper and cardboard. The reasons are practical rather than nostalgic: clay is expensive, heavy, and dangerous when broken by children. Paper, by contrast, allows for safety, scale, and experimentation, without losing the symbolic core of the tradition.
Monroy lingers over the technical rituals that give each star its form. The paste must be mixed to the right viscosity. Newspaper is layered patiently, then left to dry under cooperative weather. Cardboard cones are measured and attached, sometimes seven, sometimes nine, depending on the artisan’s eye. Tissue paper is cut into long fringes and applied in dense, colourful layers, creating spirals, flowers, or shimmering metallic finishes. While decorating may take only hours, the preparation of materials stretches back months, with families collecting paper and cardboard throughout the year.
The scale of production varies. Some families make hundreds of piñatas; others make fewer, larger, bespoke pieces. But Monroy shows that volume is not the point. What matters is continuity. For these artisans, piñata making is a way of honouring ancestors, teaching children, and asserting the specificity of Mexican tradition. While the piñata’s origins may lie elsewhere, the star, they insist, belongs to Mexico.
This original source article ‘Piñatas de estrella: oficio detrás de la tradición de las posadas’ by Fernanda Monro was published in Spanish in Contralínea on 5 January, 2026.
It is available here.
Contralínea is a Mexican investigative news magazine and outlet known for in-depth reporting on politics, society, culture, and grassroots issues.
Summary by ZN
