Annotations for Subject-headings: Festivals

[Mexica ceremony/danza sounds: flutes, shell rattles]

In many Latin American countries, people believe that the spirits of the dead return to celebrate with the living on the first two days of November, los Días de los Muertos, the days of the dead. On those days, people visit cemeteries, march in processions, or make ofrendas or altars to their loved ones who have passed, with flowers, candies, candles, liquor and sweet bread, all of the food and drinks they loved in life. These celebrations are festive and colorful, reflecting the indigenous belief that death and life are part of the same never-ending cycle. Here in this country, el Día de los Muertos has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, and nowhere more so than in San Francisco, where the celebration begins with a procession through the city's Mission District.

Okay. Now we like to ask everybody to please line up against the fence in order for us to start the procession.

I think this procession and the honoring of the dead should continue, because in that manner, we bring them back. El festival naturalmente es para recordar los Muertos y en esa forma viven. [Drumming, flutes, shell rattles]

It's very fun, and I'm here to honor my great-grandfather who died. [Drumming and whistling]

[Drumming and whistling] Dia de Muertos antiguamente era una celebración Azteca para celebrar los guerreros que murieron en batalla…[transition to English dub] The day of the dead was an Aztec tradition to honor warriors or hunters who died in battle or during a hunt. Today, it's the same spirit of joy, celebrating those who passed on[transition to original audio]…sostiene el mismo Espíritu de alegría y celebrar los difuntos.

Que vivan los muertos, la tradición sigue mas fuerte cada dia. [Drumming, singing]

[Clapping] The Chicano here in San Francisco, and throughout the Southwest, wants to retain their ancestral culture. They're Americans, but they're very special Americans. They're not English Americans or European Americans. I think what they want to do now is reintroduce this culture that's being lost in Mexico.

[Highlight--Natural Sounds--Live Music in Spanish]

La verdad que si es una celebración preciosa…[transition to English dub] It really is such a beautiful celebration. It's my first time here from Mexico, and I never imagined so many people. It's beautiful, right down to the dances representing the Day of the Dead. [Background singing]

[Music, horns, city streets]

So what do you think about the celebration?

I think it's a great idea. I think we should have it every day of the year. Absolutely.

Que te gusta?

The skeleton. They’re not scary for me. [Laughter] Some are funny. [Horns]

Para mi también la celebración tiene un carácter de fiesta…[transition to English dub] For me, this celebration is a very festive time. But it's also an opportune moment to protest some forms of death that should not be repeated, like torture and disappearances [transition to original audio]…por ejemplo la gente desaparecida.[Horns, drums]

[Drumming, horns and whistles]

[Crowd cheering] The Day of the Dead has entered the United States with the exodus of so many Latinos from Latin America, from Central America to this country, so that now it is unmistakably going to be an annual holiday. Eventually, I'm sure, next year, it'll start being commercialized. You'll probably see Safeway having Day of the Dead specials and Macy's even. They're going to commercialize. They're going to come into it. But right now, it's very beautiful because it's the beginning. They've always had it, but never like this.

Que vivan los muertos! [unintelligible] los muertos! Y vivan todos los muertos que se murieron por vivos! Y mueran todos los muertos que sigan siendo muertos vivos! [Applause, cheering, whistling]

The Day of the Dead is a spiritual celebration revolving around the communion between the living and the dead. In Boulder, Colorado, an art exhibit called Noche de Muertos: A Chicano Journey into a Michoacan Night celebrates the traditional roots of this cultural celebration, while making it a vital part of modern day Latino reality. From Boulder, Colorado, Betto Arcos prepared this report.

[Transition--Natural Sounds--Choir vocals]

The exhibition was conceived around the theme of a traditional cemetery, but the most powerful images are the altars and paintings that celebrate death and life, as in a large canvas painting of a cemetery at night. Standing near tombs covered with cempasúchil or marigold flowers, a man sings and plays the guitar. Artist Carlos Frésquez. [Choir vocals]

This particular painting is about life. It's about living. It's not about death. It's not about death. There's one woman, Calavera Catrina, she's dressed to celebrate. And really, that's what this is. It's a celebration. It's a magical piece. It's not a true reality. It's my reality.[Choir vocals]

Silvia...Mercedes...Alonso...Lupita [Choir vocals]

For inspiration leading to the exhibition of Noche de Muertos: Chicano Journey into a Michoacan Night, in 1991, a Chicano artist from Colorado traveled to the Mexican state of Michoacan.

We went into Michoacan with the intent of experiencing the days of the dead with the indigenous peoples of Mexico, in this case, Pátzcuaro and Tzintzuntzan, and coming back with that experience, and documenting it through Chicano interpretations of the visual arts.

George Rivera is professor of sociology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and co-curator of Noche de Muertos: Chicano Journey into Michoacan Night.

We went there to discover ourselves through the cultural mirror of the people of Mexico as they viewed and celebrate the days of the dead. [Choir vocals]

In Noche de Muertos, the artist also paid tribute to the life and struggle of farm worker leader Cesar Chavez, who passed away last April. [Choir vocals]

And alongside the exhibit, you will see for nichos that are all tributes to Cesar Chavez, the farm workers, and Dolores Huerta. They were done by Megan Rodriguez, Tony Ortega, Aileen Lucero, and myself, as, again, the nichos with rosaries, with candles, celebrating what Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and the Farm Worker Movement was all about. [Choir vocals]

The altar is shaped like an inverted pyramid, representing the eagle emblem of the Farm Workers Union, and built with empty letters boxes sent by the UFW's office in Salinas, California. [Choir vocals and whispers]

[Whispers]...Cesar...Juanita...[Whispers, voices]

Noche de Muertos also features a number of collaborative altars in memory of deceased relatives. One of them called Altar a Nuestras Abuelas includes an image of the Lady of Guadalupe, surrounded by photographs of the artist's grandmothers. Artist Sylvia Montero. [Whispers]

We just always have felt that we would not be the Chicanas we are today if it had not been for our grandmothers and their experiences in their lifetime, how things have changed. I believe that there's an evolutionary process to becoming Chicana, and I think the grandmother's a part of that evolution of how we become who we are.

Another prominent altar is dedicated to the memory of the early '50s rocker Ritchie Valens. The altar is designed as a stage, with Ritchie Valens at the center, and two little angels holding an electric guitar on top. It's the work of artists Rick Manzanares and Carlos Frésquez.

Rick Manzanares talked to his aunt and asked, what was his favorite things to do? She said, "He loved to eat, as we all do, and he liked to roller skate as a child." So we have a pair of roller skates. And what he left was his music, and that's still alive today.

For all of those involved in Noche de Muertos: Chicano Journey into a Michoacán Night, the exhibit is more than just an art show. George Rivera says, "It's a celebration and a revitalization of Chicano culture."

And so, Noche de Muertos and Día de los Muertos was important for us to go there and document in some way so that we and the generations to come will remember what our ancestors and the people who came from Mexico and migrated here to this country, how they understood and interpreted their dead, and how they respected that within the culture. [singing]

[Choir vocals]

Currently, an exhibition at the University of Colorado Art Galleries, Noche de Muertos: Chicano Journey into Michoacan Night moved to the Museo de Las Americas in Denver until December 4th. In 1995, it will travel to Amsterdam and other European cities. For Latino USA, this is Betto Arcos in Boulder, Colorado.