Day of the Dead - El Dia de los Muertos

Honoring relatives by tending graves, building altars, and cooking festive meals has been an honored tradition among Latin Americans for centuries. The tribute, "el Dia de los Muertos," has enjoyed renewed popularity since the 1970s when Latino activists and artists in the United States began expanding "Day of the Dead" north of the border with celebrations of performance art, Aztec danza, art exhibits, and other public expressions. Focusing on the power of ritual to serve as a communication medium, Regina M. Marchi combines a mix of ethnography, historical research, oral history, and critical cultural analysis to explore the manifold and unexpected transformations that occur when the tradition is embraced by the mainstream. A testament to the complex nature of ethnic identity, Day of the Dead in the USA provides insight into the power of ritual to create community, transmit oppositional messages, and advance educational, political, and economic goals.

Dias de muertos -- Days of the Dead -- is celebrated in Mexico each year in late October and early November. It is a family reunion in which the dead are the guests of honor who are welcomed with their favorite foods, carefully chosen gifts, and ritual paraphernalia such as candles and incense. Some of the objects show tenderness, some, a sense of perspective about life and death, and some, a frank sense of humor. In Digging the Days of the Dead, Juanita Garciagodoy depicts various aspects of the celebration -- including Prehispanic and Spanish Catholic traces on its development as well as folk and popular culture versions -- and describes its changing place in contemporary Mexico. She dedicates two chapters to close readings of calaveras, figures and scenes of "lively" skeletons that reveal details of popular philosophy about, for instance, gender and class relations and identity politics. There is also an analysis of the struggle between the traditional holiday and Hallowe'en. Garciagodoy examines in detail differences in attitudes towards death in Mexico and the United States. In part because the living do not exclude the dead from their family circle, celebrants of Dias de muertos treat death as an intimate life companion and fear it less than their northern counterparts, who tend to view death as inimical. Lavishly illustrated with 96 black and white photographs and reproductions of Posada's engravings, Digging the Days of the Dead is indispensible for scholars interested in Mexican religion and culture.

This three-volume encyclopedia describes and explains the variety and commonalities in Latina/o culture, providing comprehensive coverage of a variety of Latina/o cultural forms-popular culture, folk culture, rites of passages, and many other forms of shared expression. * Serves as an ideal resource for research that succinctly overviews myriad topics relating to Latina/o cultural traditions that general readers and high school students will find accessible and easy to use * Places Latina/o traditions within a historical context to deepen comprehension of Latina/o culture * Provides an exploration of identity, terms, and labels as well as sidebars, "spotlight" biographies, primary documents, and suggestions for additional information

Mexico has a vast range of festivals, several commemorating national events but mostly religious or spiritual in inspiration. After the Spanish Conquest of 1521, Roman Catholic teachings fused with the beliefs of native civilizations, and even today the popular arts and crafts draw upon the Church as a rich source of imagery. Fiestas are often lavish and extremely costly. With extensive preparations, they commemorate local saints days and religious holidays such as Christmas, Carnival and Holy Week. Many festivals are dominated by masked dances, and the Devil, Death, angels and the Deadly Sins still do battle at fiesta time in countless village squares. During the Days of the Dead (All Saints and All Souls days, 1st and 2nd November), the deceased are thought to visit friends and relatives on earth. Families welcome the returning souls with flowers, incense, candles and feasting. On 12th December, Mexicans everywhere honour Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico and an important symbol of national identity. Drawing on her extensive travels in Mexico and the collections she has helped create in the British Museum, Chloe Sayer provides a living context to show what makes these festivities so attractive and also uniquely Mexican.

Each October, as the Day of the Dead draws near, Mexican markets overflow with decorated breads, fanciful paper cutouts, and whimsical toy skulls and skeletons. To honor deceased relatives, Mexicans decorate graves and erect home altars. Drawing on a rich array of historical and ethnographic evidence, this volume reveals the origin and changing character of this celebrated holiday. It explores the emergence of the Day of the Dead as a symbol of Mexican and Mexican-American national identity. Skulls to the Living, Bread to the Dead poses a serious challenge to the widespread stereotype of the morbid Mexican, unafraid of death, and obsessed with dying. In fact, the Day of the Dead, as shown here, is a powerful affirmation of life and creativity. Beautifully illustrated, this book is essential for anyone interested in Mexican culture, art, and folklore, as well as contemporary globalization and identity formation.

Because of the high quality and the quantity of his art, Jose Guadalupe Posada is the one Mexican printmaker who has acquired posthumous and international fame. Posada was at his peak at the turn of the 20th century, during the closing years of the Diaz dictatorship. He has long been recognized as one of the personifications of the ensuing Mexican Revolution, which he did not live to se e completed. He illustrated many broadsides of revolutionary ballads, printed on cheap paper and sold for centavos in the streets. [from the Introduction by Carlos Cortez] Published on the 150th anniversary of Posada's birth (1852-2002), this book features 121 of the finest works by the great popular engraver and relief etcher who inspired not only the Mexican muralists but also the international Surrealist movement as well as poster artists and radical cartoonists from all over the world. Also included here are excerpts from classic texts on the artist by Jean Charlot, Jose Clemente Orozco, Frida Kahlo, Andre Breton and others, as well as statements by poets and artists of our own time - Dennis Brutus, Rikki Ducornet, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Franklin Rosemont, Joseph Jablonski, Ted Joans, Casandra Stark Mele, and many more - all published here for the first time.

Every year in the highlands of Guatemala, the town of Sumpango celebrates Day of the Dead by flying kites. The kites are massive, the largest measuring 45 feet in diameter. Smaller kites, close 20 feet in height, are flown in a death-defying race down the side of a mountain. From a distance, the kites appear luminous and blissful, but the radiant colors of the kites mask an ominous subtext. On closer inspection, the images on the sails depict people in agony and torment: mutilated bodies, mass burials, kidnappings, and rivers of blood. In graphic illustration, the kites allude to the dark and painful history of Guatemala's 30-year civil war. Originally centered on remembering the dead, the kite festival has become a way for the indigenous community to heal itself from the trauma of the war. Wings of Resistance examines the politics and art of the giant kites, placing this Guatemalan tradition in the context of international kite cultures. The contributors include Alison Fujino, Christopher Ornelas, Jose Sainz, Scott Skinner, and Victorino Tejaxun.