The Day of the Dead in Mexico smells like cempasuchil flowers and copal incense. It has a sweet taste. Sounds and colors abound. There are photos, candles and music all over. The hands of artisans prepare the altars to honor their ancestors.
Although it is an intangible tradition, borne down from pre-Hispanic cultures, Day of the Dead is also a celebration for all the senses —even if one of them is failing you. Gerardo Ramírez, who over the years become almost blind, sums it all up in one line: “You honor people, you connect with the past.”
Together, two smells show dead souls the way out of the underworld: cempasúchil — a type of marigold whose name means “flower of 20 petals in Náhuatl language" — and a tree resin called copal burned at altars.
Día de los Muertos is a traditional fiesta in honor of the deceased that is celebrated in Mexico and other parts of Latin America on Nov. 1 and 2. The holiday is celebrated though ritual observations like constructing altars filled with offerings to the dead and decorating family gravesites to commune with the dead. Day of the Dead is also commemorated through vivacious fiestas in which communities gather in town plazas and community centers to celebrate by dancing, playing music, feasting, drinking and masquerading as death.
Although Day of the Dead is a long-standing tradition in Mexico, the holiday wasn’t celebrated widely or publicly among Latinos in the U.S. That changed in the 1970s and 1980s when artists and activists introduced Day of the Dead to their communities as part of the Chicano movement, the social and cultural movement for Mexican-American empowerment.
Altar’s also include photos of loved ones. About 30 first-generation students submitted photos and Silva included pictures of her uncle, cousin and great-grandparents, who were immigrants from Tepic, Mexico.
“This is Adolfo Covarrubias, and then Carmen Covarrubias. My great-grandpa passed away in 2016. And then my great grandma, she just passed this last December. So we're lucky enough to have been able to spend 96 years with both of them.”
Sliva said the pictures bring back memories and remind her of where she came from. She’s also happy to share family stories when people stop to look.
One can make their own altar, which can be as simple as a candle and a photo, said Michelle Téllez, an associate professor in the Department of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
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