Day of the Dead in the Capital

This year I really wanted to spend the season commemorating the dead in Oaxaca or Michoacán, but that was not possible and I stayed at CDMX. The truth is that when I was in places like El Tule, La Pacanda, Santa Fe de la Laguna and other cities in Oaxaca and Michoaca, I had literally amazing experiences. Walking all night through its candle-lit pantheons adorned with flowers, listening to the songs of the relatives of the dead is something that each of us should experience at least once in a lifetime. Each state has its own sweets, designs, ways of placing items in offerings, and photoshopped photos of the dead to make them look prettier. In addition, everywhere you can go to the houses to see the offers, and they always welcome you atole and tamales from this region. I especially remember once I was in Tiripetio, Michigan, where it is customary to ask where the deceased’s house is this year, and when you arrive, you will be given a place to sit, food, and lots of love. In 2005, I was at the home of a young man who was swept away by a river and drowned, so his mother captured a photograph of the dead man looking happy as he stood at the top of a stairway to heaven against a bright golden light.

I like these holidays much more than Christmas, because people dress up to go out, there are more and more invitations to eat the bread of the dead with chocolate, there are many altars everywhere and the atmosphere is generally festive. . I like how people behave, cities, how everything is decorated in markets and supermarkets, I love the Halloween mix and I really like that Americans like this topic more and more.

One of the things that I enjoy the most is going to various markets to buy everything I need for an offering because Jamaica has sugar skulls that I love and Mixcoak has handmade candles and candles. which are made in Puebla, in Central de Abasto I buy sempasuchil flowers because they are fresh and cheap, in La Merced clay dishes that imitate enchiladas and sweet bread that my father loved so much, in Milpa Alta they have little sugar sarcophagi with a string that if you pull on it, the kalyak that lies inside will bounce, and so on, until you reach a house loaded with wonderful things to look for photographs of my dead and start putting up an installation with neon lights, diamond-shaped tulle and silver-colored fabrics so that everything looks the same as in the afterlife.

Spending a day of the dead in the capital is not the same as in states like Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca or Michoacán, but it was nice to be here, walking down the Paseo de la Reforma at night and having fun dressed up as passers-by, spider dogs or cockroaches, alebris displayed on the sidewalk, and lights that many people bring to decorate their hair. Today I will do the same and I will go with my friend and my niece Sophie for a walk to the Dolores Pantheon, which, as always, cools down and closes at 6:00, and from there we go to Reforma for a walk, this time with makeup, with my paper flower headband , fishnet stockings with spiders on them, and I will return happy for feeling like in a dream with all this on top. I hope, despite so much pain, confusion and death, we can all enjoy the same things and make a truce to have fun. Today is one of those days when the little thresholds of the world open up so that at least some of us can celebrate and be proud of a country that still has so much to offer us. Happy days of the dead!

JULEN LADRON DE GUEVARA
[email protected]
@JULENLDG

BUDDY