Hay que morir para vivir
Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) comes in the middle of the quarter for me, which never allows me to actively partcipate in the festivities. Damn school.
All I wanted to do was fix up the little altar I have set up for Grandpa and Grandma who passed away 9 and 5 years ago, respectively, but I haven’t even been able to do that well. I didn’t get marigolds even when I saw a vendor in Boyle Heights selling them. I don’t have pan de muerto, and I don’t have any of the cute little sugar skulls even when I had the opportunity to buy a couple.
Yesterday while at lunch at a great Oaxacan restuarant in Palms, La Guelaguetza, I noticed pan de muerto and sugar skulls of three different sizes on sale. The small, $1 skulls had names on the foreheads. I guess my grandparents’ names, Bartolo y Juana, are either too unusual or too common because I couldn’t find either name and left without a sugar skull or bread.
Oh well, I don’t think sugar skulls would be a good thing to put there even though my grandparents have already passed away. Grandma passed away from complications due to diabetes. Grandpa died because of kidney cancer, but I know he used to drench his pancakes in maple syrup.
Well at least they have that much over there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an alter here in Dallas. I’ve seen “fake” ones. . .you know, the ones with cut out skulls and “Dia de los Muertos” construction paper letters cut out pasted on a wall. . but nothing like they do in Mexico. Now those alters. . .I have Tias who spend all of Halloween cooking for “El dia de los Santos” for the deceased children and saints on November 1st, and all day November 1st cooking for Dia de Los Muertos for their deceased loved ones.
Tradition looses so much translation here. . ever notice that?
I’m going to stop by my favorite Veracruzana restaurant here in Oak Cliff y les voy a reclamar. . Porque no venden pan de los muertos!!! Pos estos!
[...] 8217;s celebration of Halloween. Cindy Mosqueda, a graduate student at UCLA, describes the difficulty in setting up a time-consuming altar with the demands of school. Finally, Joel sent me a collection of [...]
I knowwhat you mean about not being able to make a proper altar. I wanted to do one for my great granny and grandpa, but i had nothing set up. Bleh. Hasta el proximio ano…i guess..