La Moda: Dia de Los Muertos

It's almost here! The 2nd of November is a lot closer than many of you might think, so get excited.

Why am I making a big deal about this? Well, on my trip to Hermosillo, Sonora this weekend, I noticed my aunt had a pile of supplies by the door. A broom, some candles, a framed photograph of my grandparents and little palo fierro figurines that my grandfather loooved.

So you're thinking, "Ok, I get it, Dalina's crazy. She's talking about a day that's 3 weeks away and observes that her family gathers odd things."

Well, yeah, but there's more. The supplies my Tia Ana had by the door are actually going to accompany her on Nov. 2nd, better known as Día de Los Muertos. She'll pick up a pan de muerto on her way to the cemetery, where she'll sit and pray for a couple of hours and clean my grandparents' graves, just as she does every year.

When my sisters and I were younger and happened to be in town for this occasion, we'd sit there, bored and kind of upset that we would have to clean. Then we'd all go home and eat the bread. As far as I remember, it was kind of yucky. It looks wonderful, but seeing as it is made for the dead, and they no longer have taste buds, it doesn't have to taste so good.

Living in Nogales, we didn't follow up with the tradition, no family in town=no graves to clean.

Fast-forward about a decade and I'm in college. I have family in Tucson and graves to visit, but never really followed the tradition and it had lost all meaning. People around me ask about the "holiday" and invite me to the huge procession on Fourth Ave. Not really interested.

Then my grandfather died. Last year, I spent most of my summer in a daze. Suddenly, it was November and my aunt invited me to the procession. I still have the prayer form. It's waaay different than what I experienced in Hermosillo, but I hear it's similar to the smaller towns in Mexico, where this is a bigger deal.

Here are some pictures of my experience:

Photos by Dalina Castellanos