Celebrating Hispanic Day of the Dead with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
I lived in California several years before I could find out about the Hispanic celebration of Day of the Dead, which is celebrated between October 31st and November 2nd. Despite going to Hispanic grocery stores, having a Mexican neighbor, and being able to read Spanish, I still could not find out information on how to set up a Day of the Dead altar, for example.
I had seen ofrendas, Day of the Dead altars, when I attended
a Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) parade in Salinas, California. At this parade, I also watched the Popoktepl
Aztec Dancers, who wore feathers on their heads and noisemakers on their legs,
drank hot chocolate, and ate sweet bread in the shape of a skull. However, I still had no idea how to set up an
ofrenda.
I wanted to set up a Day of the Dead altar to add something
educational to my daughter Florence’s celebration of Halloween. I found out how to learn more about ofrendas
when I read the newspaper and saw that Tere Romo of the Mexican Museum in San
Francisco would be doing a talk on Day of the Dead celebrations in the United
States in Monterey. I made plans to
attend this talk with Florence.
Dr. Amalia Mesa-Baines introduced Tere Romo by saying that
Day of the Dead is an ancient tradition that has Meso-American roots. It was transformed by the Catholic Church to
fit into the holiday of All Souls’ Day.
The holiday was revitalized in the 1960s through the Chicano movement.
Romo told the audience that she was most interested in how
Day of the Dead was celebrated in California.
Originally, the holiday was celebrated in the home. The holiday began to be celebrated as a
community event at the Gallery de la Raza in San Francisco at a 1972 exhibit.
After 1848 when Mexico ceded large tracts of territory to
the United States, many Mexicans discovered overnight that they were Americans. These people, who lived mostly
in rural areas, observed Day of the Dead by making crepe paper decorations for
the graves. They would spend the day at
the cemetery and eat a meal there. Other
people would build ofrendas in the home.
In the 1970s, Day of the Dead became an urban, community,
and political phenomenon. Artists made
ofrendas an art form. Day of the Dead
became a focal point for helping Chicanos reclaim their Mexican and indigenous
roots. Its observance provided an
alternative to Western European religion.
“What gets overlooked,” Romo pointed out, “is the role of
spirituality in the Chicano movement.”
Romo showed us a series of slides of ofrendas, which all featured
flowers (especially marigolds, the symbol of death in Mexico), food,
photographs of the deceased, and paper cutouts.
“Death is life’s equalizer,” Romo commented. What has allowed the event to survive according
to Romo is the message of duality of life and death, meaning that death is a
part of life.
Romo stressed that Day of the Dead rituals from Mexico could
not be translated to the United States.
“We have our own celebration here that is both political and spiritual,”
she continued. I thought this was
because Hispanics in the United States were a minority culture and not a
dominant culture as in Mexico.
One question from the audience generated some interesting
comments. Romo said the holiday had origins
before the Olmecs, who are considered to be the mother culture of Mexico and
Central America.
“The concept of duality of life and death holds all the
cultures of Mexico and Central America together as well as the cultivation of
corn,” she said.
Romo also noted that Day of the Dead was originally held in
August, but the Spanish moved it to November 2nd to correspond to
All Souls’ Day. As for the ofrendas, she
explained that prior to the coming of the Spanish, the dead were buried under
the floor of the living area in homes.
This custom may have been at the origin of building altars in the home.
I asked about foods served for Day of the Dead.
“They are regional,” she replied. “In Michoacan, they eat chocolate moles
(chicken with savory and spicy chocolate sauce).”
A few days later, I took Florence to an art workshop where
we made things for our very own ofrenda.
I made papel picado, a crepe paper decoration, and Florence painted a
sugar skull.
“Como se dice ‘skull’ en espagnol?” I asked the children
whom Florence was sitting with. (“How do
you say ‘skull’ in Spanish” was my question.)
“Calavera,” they answered.
When we returned to the house, I cleaned off one of the
bookshelves in the dining room that held cookbooks. I thought of how I would like to remember the
dead in the family as I set up the ofrenda.
I put one of my crystal shining cloths on the top of the
bookshelf. It reminded me of the
dishtowels I had used at my great-aunt Winnie’s to dry dishes. I set out pictures of great-grandparents,
glasses of water, tea, a tea pot, and sea salt to remind me of Aunt Winnie.
Next, I put a rose-scented candle with a picture of the
Virgin of Guadalupe on it on top of the counter. (You can buy these candles in California
supermarkets.) After that, I placed
Florence’s Technicolor sugar skull on the altar. I put up a poster of a skeleton band playing
that I had gotten from my Day of the Dead box from Shambala Redstone
Editions. The papel picado I made went
over it all.
Florence and I then went on a mission to find
marigolds. We found some at Mi Tierra market.
We installed the flowers on the ofrenda and invited our
Mexican neighbor and his French wife over.
They liked the altar and asked Florence about the people in the
photographs.
I made tacos for dinner and felt like I was part of
California’s wonderful world mix.
By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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