Kathy's Blog: Day of the Dead

I can’t believe another year has passed and it is time to celebrate Day of the Dead again. There really is nothing like it in the States except for within a few random Latino communities.

Cecilia and I had 5 huge garbage bags of brightly colored flowers to carry down to the cemetery. We walked down because there is no passage for cars. Mauricio (Ceci’s brother) met us part way to help us carry them. We got there before the rest of the families did. But it wasn’t too long of a wait. Soon Balmore, Rosa, Pilar, Elmer, and 3 others from Alejandria were there. We divvied up the flowers. I went with Rosa and Mauricio to find and decorate 3 family crosses: Rosa’s mom Tomasa, her father Juan and an aunt. By the time we got back to where Ceci and the rest were, they were just about done with their four graves. We took a bunch of flowers over to Balmore’s aunt’s graves. The sisters had died within a month of each other. Then we walked to Balmore’s great-grand father’s grave and decorated. Then to one of his distant cousins who died alone – he was burned when his little house burned down. He has no family so they make sure they decorate his grave and remember him every year.

This is a day that fills the senses. The bright colors of all the flowers – both real and fake contrast with the freshly painted and mostly bright white or silver crosses and it fills your eyes. The sounds are of people chatting, laughing, reconnecting, and children selling their painting skills for a penny a letter. The older boys will paint the the whole cross for as little as a quarter. Depends upon the size of the job. There are more children walking through the cemetery selling cut up fruits and veggies and juices as well as men and women walking around trying to sell more flowers and candies. The sounds are like music. Your nose is filled with the smells of the fresh paint on the crosses mixed in with the earthy smell of the freshly rearranged earth. And there is food: pupusas, chicken and meat are being cooked on the streets just outside the walls of the cemetery. People carry their large flat griddles to be close to the activity and take advantage of all the people that come in to visit their dead. All those mixed smells are really quite pleasant. And the tastes: sugar cane cut and ready for us to chew out the sweetness. Papaya, coconut, cucumber, fruits I can't even name are in little baggies ready to add lemon juice and salt and even chile. Fresh juices are everywhere. And for our sense of touch – the handshakes and hugs of friends. And whoops – the accidental touching of still wet paint on a gravesite cross.