Copyright Santa Rosa Press Democrat
“Bringing something beautiful that’s from the heart feels really important right now,” said Emma Mann, co-owner of Penngrove’s Three Sisters Apothecary. Explaining the thought behind her company’s new Desde el Corazón range of products – all inspired by the scents and traditions of Mexico – Mann emphasized the importance, especially at this moment, of introducing soaps, salts and body butters that remind her and her family of home. “I’ve been stunned by the reaction from our buyers,” she said. “And it’s not just our Hispanic buyers. It’s our mainstream buyers. They’re like, ‘We get it. We love this.’” Desde el Corazón, Mann pointed out, means “From the heart.” More than just a label, those words are the driving inspiration of the company’s new line of products, strategically released as her community begins its celebrations of Dia de los Muertos. “We wanted to put something out there that was positive and beautiful about the Mexican culture,” said Mann. “For us this is very much something that’s evocative from our home, everything that’s precious and dear – especially given the political climate we’re in right now, where things feel very polarized.” The Desde el Corazón creations, all manufactured by hand in the Three Sisters soap studio, are offered in three distinct lines. The “Cafe de Olla” products are rich with the scent of dark-roasted coffee, earthy cinnamon, brown sugar and orange peel, while “Tres Leches,” named for the distinctive sponge cake made with three kinds of milk, brings a hint of fresh strawberry to a blend of goat, coconut and oat milks. “Pepino y Limón,” indicative of its name, carries the scent of fresh cucumber with bright lime and a whisper of chili heat. Whether represented as a bar of soap, a tin of body butter or a packet of foaming bath salts, all of these borrow their fragrances from familiar details of everyday Mexican life. “I’ll send my daughter a screenshot of a plate of cucumbers with chili and lime and she’s like, ‘I wish I was there with you,’” Mann said. “Fresh summer cucumbers, she equates with home, and I equate that with my grandmother making them for me when I was three or four years old. It’s such an iconic staple in most Mexican homes. It’s evocative of all the memories of my grandmother and her home and my parents.” In describing the “Cafe de Olla” line, Mann noted that there’s no Mexican family that doesn’t know the simmered pot of Cafe de Olla dessert coffee. “With the piloncillo sugar and the cinnamon that’s in there as it’s steeping, and then a twist of sweet orange, when you smell it you just know what it is,” she said. The same is true of tres leches cake. “It just has this scent that’s a mixture of milk and cake, with its whipped cream layer, cinnamon and fresh strawberries adorning the top of it. It’s just a very evocative scent.” Even the visual presentation of the products, and especially the papel picado artwork on the packaging, is intended as a celebration of Mexican culture. “Papel picado is a paper art form where you cut away into tissue paper, and Mexican craftsmen have been making it for hundreds of years,” Mann said. “What you wind up with is a banner of these flags that are delicate and ephemeral and colorful.” There is a belief in Mexican culture, she explained, that the veil between the worlds becomes thinnest at Dia de los Muertos, a time when the spirits of those that we’ve lost can come back. “The children always come first, in the first 24 hours,” she said, “and then the adults come. So an altar, or ofrenda, is often decorated with the papel picado banners. You can see them flutter, and you could say it’s the wind or you could say it’s the spirits coming to visit.” The ofrenda – a small altar with mementos, photos and keepsakes, plus food and other treats served up for the dead – is an important part of Dia de los Muertos observations. “You always have salt for purification, water, because they’re thirsty from coming from a long distance, pan de la muerto, bread made of anise so that you can sustain them when they come, and marigolds to light the way,” Mann said. “The scent of the marigolds are very fragrant, and they bring them home.” Mann, who has lost many loved ones, including her mother who passed away this year, keeps an ofrenda in her home all year long. “I say hello to them every morning and I say goodnight to them as I’m on the way to bed,” she said. “It makes me feel like they’re not as far away as they might otherwise be.” There is also an ofrenda up in the Three Sisters store, and Mann added that she appreciates the other ofrendas she’s seen at places like the Penngrove Market, Petaluma’s Lan Mart Building and Copperfield’s Books. “Even though it’s not a part of their culture, they understand that it’s beyond ethnicity,” Mann said. “It’s more of a community feeling, and people are so receptive.” Given that Mann’s family has always been migratory, living in both Mexico and California, she said it’s been hard lately to look at the news or social media and see what is happening to the Hispanic community, which she believes is being intentionally terrorized. She described the heartbreak of seeing young people being sent off to El Salvador without a hearing, and the recent images of children sitting with their hands zip-tied on a darkened Chicago street. “We see these images every day,” she said. “We see people picked up at their immigration hearings, and it’s heartbreaking because it could be your aunt, it could be your cousin, it could be your mother. And it just feels so heavy and so negative and so unnecessary.” Mann’s mother was 83, and before she died she often expressed concern about leaving the house without her papers. “She’d been a citizen for over 50 years,” Man said. “She was still afraid that she was too dark. Should she be picked up, how would she come home? How do any of these people come home?” Returning to the subject of Dia de los Muertos, and the small way her family business is honoring its culture, Mann said she hopes the new Desde el Corazón items bring comfort and warm recollections, perhaps reflecting, in a small way, an ofrenda’s power to call back to our memories the people we love. That, after all, is the true meaning of Dia de los Muertos. “At least for one time of the year, you can have them home,” said Mann. “It means that nobody is ever really gone.” About Three Sisters 11830 Main St., Penngrove Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday 707-665-5976, soapcauldron.com Email: soapcauldron@sonic.net
