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this weekend, Mexican American families across the US will gather to honor their ancestors with altars, lilies and sugar skulls on the Day of the Dead – Dia de los Muertos. In recent years, the celebration has become more commercialized, leaving many in the community wondering how to preserve the age-old tradition to keep it alive.
The Day of the Dead is traditionally an intimate family affair, celebrated with home altars – orendas – and visits to cemeteries to decorate graves with flowers and sugar skulls. They bring their deceased loved ones’ favorite foods and hire musicians to perform their favorite songs.
Skeleton are at the center of celebrations, marking the return of the bones to the world of the living. Like seeds sown in the soil, the dead disappear temporarily, only to return each year like the annual harvest.
Family Place photos of your ancestors in your restaurant, include paper decorations and candles, and decorate with offerings of items beloved by their loved ones, such as cigars, a bottle of mezcal, or a plate of mole, tortillas, and chocolate.
From intimate gatherings to mainstream culture
Celebration of the Day of the Dead in America and Mexico Continue development.
Cesario Moreno, chief curator and visual director of the National Museum of Mexican Art, said the release of Disney’s animated film “Coco” in 2017 changed celebrations in northern Mexico and made Day of the Dead more popular and commercialized the festivities in American cities, and an annual Día de los Muertos parade is held in Mexico City.
“Coco” provided a way for people who are not from the Mexican American community to learn about the tradition and embrace its beauty, Moreno said. But it also made the festival more marketable.
“The Mexican American community in the United States celebrates the Day of the Dead as a cultural expression,” Moreno said. “It’s a healthy tradition and actually has an important role in the grieving process. But with thecocoa‘That movie really pushed it into mainstream popular culture.’
With its growing popularity, Day of the Dead is often confused with Halloween, Moreno said, which has changed the way it is celebrated and people’s understanding of it.
Traditional altars, modernization
In recent years, some people within and outside the Mexican American community have created colorless ofrendas, leaning toward a more minimalist aesthetic.
Colorful altars have been a part of Mexican and Mesoamerican culture since the arrival of the Spaniards and the conversion of Mexico’s native tribes to Catholicism. Some families now create altars without flowers and papel picado – multi-colored lacy wall decorations featuring hearts and skulls over the years.
Moreno said that’s fine, as long as the meaning is not destroyed.
“If people want to do something different, that’s OK,” Moreno said. “But if people stop understanding what is at the core of this tradition, if people start changing it, then I am against it.”
Ana Ceci Lerma, a Mexican American living in Texas, suspects that minimalists satisfy the desire to create Instagram-worthy content.
“I think you can put what you want on the altar and what connects you to your loved ones,” Lerma said. “But if your argument is simply that you like how it looks, then I think you’re missing a bit of the reason why we build altars.”
Commercialization raises questions of respect
Sehila Mota Casper, director of Latinos at Heritage Conservation, a nonprofit that supports the preservation of Latino culture, said American businesses are trying to make money from Día de los Muertos as they have Cinco de Mayo, focusing on profits rather than culture. Large chain stores, including Target and Wal-Mart, now sell create-your-own-offer kits, Mota Casper said.
“It has begun to be culturally adopted by other individuals outside our diaspora,” he said.
Although not Mexican, Beth McRae has lived in Arizona and California and has always been surrounded by Latino culture. He has created an altar for the Day of the Dead since 1994.
He started collecting festival-related items in the early 90s and has amassed a collection of over 1,000 items. And she organizes a party every year to celebrate this day.
“It’s the best celebration because you’re inviting loved ones that you’ve lost,” McRae said.
He added, “I threw my first Day of the Dead party in San Diego with a very small collection of items,” and it became an annual event.
McRae said she tries to be respectful by making sure the items she places on her orenda are from Mexico, and by focusing on lost loved ones.
“It’s done with respect and love, but it’s also an opportunity to raise awareness among people who may not be familiar with or exposed to the culture,” McRae said.
Salvador Ordorica, a first-generation Mexican American who lives in Los Angeles, said traditions should be reestablished so that younger generations will want to keep them alive.
“I think it’s OK to change traditions,” Ordorica said. “It’s really a way to keep that tradition alive as long as the original place of the tradition remains.”
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Associated Press reporter Maria Teresa Hernandez in Mexico City contributed.