It has just
recently come to my attention that a local non-Latino business has an upcoming
event featuring a planned day of festivities built around the traditional
Mexican holiday, Dia de Los Muertos. Their purpose? To mourn the passing of temperate
weather that allows participation in a particular outdoor activity.
I completely understand the grief when the weather begins
to turn intemperate. On this, I can commiserate. However, this “loss” is not
representative of the beliefs and traditions with which many Latinos,
particularly those of Mexican ancestry, view this holiday.
Using Dia de Los Muertos to serve as an event backdrop
takes a very sacred, meaningful holiday and disregards the thousands of
year-old history. Inviting participants to "take advantage of the
Halloween season and get their sugar skull costumes ready" is incredibly
tone-deaf and uninformed on the true meaning of this holiday. It disrespects the
real living people for whom it holds great significance. It converts it into a
Halloween spirited license to appropriate our culture, dress up in our
traditions, eat tacos and drink beer. FYI. We do recognize that our traditions
look really, really cool! And yes, eating tacos and drinking beer is sacred in
its own right. On the other hand, appropriating another’s culture for a big
drinking party, especially a cultural tradition centered on remembering and
honoring our dead, not so much.
Yes, many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans do have
celebratory parties and some may use face paint, dress as a skeleton or La
Calavera Catrina (Lady of the Dead). However, our culture is not a Halloween
event or costume for the general public to play dress up, go trick-or-treating,
or to wear to parties. We do understand that the beauty of our traditions and
celebrations are incredibly attractive, but it is so much more than calaveras
on t-shirts, eating, drinking and painting one’s face.
Dia de Los Muertos has its roots in over 3,000 years of
various forms of use in pre-Colombian and Mexican culture. It continues to be
observed in various ways in many Central and South American countries. For many
Indigenous people death was not viewed as something to be afraid of, but rather
a next step. Many believed in the three deaths. The first when the body ceases
to function. Second when the body is returned to the earth. And the third and
final death when there is no one left to remember us.
Dia de Los Muertos is a special time that we remember
with intent, our ancestors, and our loved ones who have died. We celebrate
their lives, we tell stories about them. We clean their graves, offer prayers,
set out altars with their pictures, and a few of their favorite things as
offerings. Food, drink, candles and marigolds are set out. It is believed that
the spirits will return to where they are welcomed and that they will be hungry
and thirsty from their journey. The scent of the flowers also draws their
attention.
Skulls, real and fabricated, as well as skull masks, were
used to celebrate life and rebirth in Mexico. The tradition of the sugar skull
(calaveras de azúcar or calaveras) comes from the desire to remember that life,
and to capture the joy, vibrancy and sweetness of the deceased. Often the name
of a loved one will be placed on the forehead of a sugar skull.
There are two days in this celebration. November 1st and
November 2nd. The first of November is the day of the children (Dia de los
Angelitos). It is believed that at midnight on October 31st, the souls of the
deceased children re-enter our world and visit for 24 hours. On November 2nd,
the spirits of the adults also rejoin this plane.
There is a harsh reality that for many in America of
Mexican ancestry, they are negatively impacted by our broken immigration system
and the lack of any real political will to enact meaningful reforms. For many,
even with citizenship, they find that it still does not offer armor against
this country’s endemic, systemic and institutional racism that is felt in a
variety of negative ways. They find themselves constantly up against it in
education, employment, housing, and healthcare access, disproportionate arrest
and imprisonment rates, etc. Ugly stereotypes about who we are abound.
Non-Latinos, particularly white people, use our culture for a party, playing at
dress up. Afterwards they can then remove their costumes, they can wipe off the
face paint and continue business as usual in their privilege of whiteness.
This is not to say that one who is not a part of this
culture cannot respectfully participate. You can attend events created by us
when they are open to the public. You can bring your pictures and offrendas for
your loved one. In that space you can celebrate your ancestors with us. And
just as you might attend any other culture’s traditional celebrations, you
enjoy them as a guest. There’s no need to wear a costume or paint your face.
That’s what the Halloween parties are for, but again please do not appropriate
the culture of others and do not go as a stereotype. Be creative.
Finally, please remember that the terms Latino and
Hispanic cover a diverse array of countries and cultural beliefs. Not all
celebrate Dia de los Muertos the same, if they observe it at all. Even among
ourselves, we encounter struggles between those who observe our traditions as a
part of their own historical culture and those who although they are Latino,
may promote an event and seemingly, intentionally or not, “legitimize” the use of a culture that is
not their own.