Reflections on Day of the Dead
By Lou Christine

Breathe easy. You’ve almost made it! You’re probably going to live through another Day of the Dead. Actually, there are two Days of the Dead, this Friday and Saturday, providing as much as 48 hours to reflect and peer in the rear-view mirror of your life. Some of us can congratulate ourselves for stamina after the abuse we’ve put ourselves through, feeling as good as dead after ingesting a freight train’s worth of junk food over the last year, washing it down with copious amounts of alcohol and sugar, while puffing on thousands of cigarettes.

It’s ironic, or maybe not, the way Mexico pays homage to its dead; one of those subtle yet glaring differences that surfaces between two distinct cultures. In the US, death is treated as taboo, something that only occurs to other people. However, they honor death in holidays. There’s Memorial Day and Martin Luther King’s birthday. Too bad the combined celebration of Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays has degenerated into a sales promotion—Madison Avenue’s tactic to liquidate Wal-Mart’s or Home Depot’s post-holiday inventory.

If you’ve traveled to Mexico during the first days of November, you may have witnessed the nationwide tributes. Dried flowers, seeds and prayer stones are placed respectfully on makeshift, candle-lit “Day of the Dead” altars, livening up living rooms inside exquisite haciendas or modest, dirt-floored homes. No matter, the sentiment’s the same. The installations are thumbnail sketches of lifetimes of the past, decorated with photos and cherished keepsakes. Tender reminders are showcased: a bottle of tequila, a sports team’s jersey, or the passed-away one’s favorite snack.

Like myself, you may have been stirred because of a bittersweet familiarity that honors someone admired by those left behind. However, death is more certain than the bill coming at the end of a meal. We’ve all wondered about death, at one time or another; some are even terrorized by death’s inevitability.

Yet in Mexico there’s a breath of fresh air in celebrating death. Ancestral memories are brought back to life within peoples’ minds. Every soul is collectively remembered; these souls are mindfully assembled into a refined centerpiece of the past, symbolically portrayed as a bouquet in a non-elitist manner. Those honored need not have been president or explorer or national hero.

Placing myself in the non-lethal spirit of things, I’ve got my own short list to reflect on this year. Of recent passage, there’s my lovely niece Nicole, my affable brother-in-law Ken and others sprinkled around the globe, including some here in San Miguel.

I’ll reflect on the images. In my mind, I’ll say, “Hi,” to grandmom and Aunt Dinny, women who once beamed unconditional smiles down towards a little boy, smiles that so warmed the heart. I’ll utter, “Hola,” “Aloha,” and some, “Hey, man’s” and Philly-sounding “yo’s” to guys off the block, names that mean nothing to you, but mean something to me. The list gets longer each year.

Perhaps you have your own list; you’ll bring back memories. You might take a moment and recall a pair of once-shimmering, root beer eyes. Perhaps you’ll dig a little deeper and hear that cozy voice of a dad, sensing how it resonated, or you’ll rekindle another voice’s velvety texture, of your mom or special lady friend. The distinct aroma of an aunt’s perfume or an uncle’s smoldering pipe tobacco can take your senses into a lifetime’s worth of recollections. Memory Lane a popular destination during Days of the Dead.

You might remember past acquaintances who doubled you over with whacky humor or friends who were solid sounding boards or partners who shared passions during intimate moments. No matter! Reel back in time and say, “Hi, dad” or whisper, “Love ya, baby, you were the best.” The ears belonging to those souls might perk up during the Day of the Dead.

Maybe, like me, you ask yourself from time to time, “Why am I here, in Mexico?” Maybe, like me, your answer isn’t that vague; it’s special here. It’s healthy. I like the taste Mexico leaves in my mouth. Nobody gets left out during this holiday here in Mexico. 

Later on, when it’s our turn, those gone before us will offer a helping hand or welcome mat to the new kids on the “hereafter block,” and might soften up those who sit in final judgment.

Disculpe, I don’t know a better way to say it—Happy Day of the Dead!

Lou Christine is a local writer and long-time contributor to Atención.

LETTERS


Editor,

I offer an update about Gloria Espino and the progress of her support network in raising funds to facilitate a bone marrow transplant/medical treatment deemed essential in fighting the leukemia that Gloria suffers.

Very promising news has just come in—we received a sizable donation from a generous and charitable community member not wanting to be acknowledged. I am informed by the donor that he has provided a check to Gloria Espino for US$10,000 to be deposited into the Monex account (described in detail at the end of this letter) for medical costs for the surgery, which would mean that the bone marrow transplant could proceed as scheduled. The love and support from organizations external to San Miguel, local organizations, local individuals and our San Miguel Community at large in assisting Gloria Espino’s effort to extend her life with us has been astonishing and inspiring.

It is very important to understand, however, that the additional costs required for Gloria will approximate about US$12,000 for chemotherapy, hospital-related costs, and on-going medical treatments. This figure does not include additional indirect costs associated to the transplant, including travel and housing and other related costs. Our goal remains US$36,000.

The next fundraising activity is slated for November 29 and will be an art sale by prominent artists at Arias Art Gallery, the studio of Jose Arias and Gloria Espino at Correo 73—more details are forthcoming; planning for subsequent events is underway.

It is important to emphasize that future expenses will include necessary housing for Gloria and her sister in Monterey as they undergo pre-surgical routine, not to mention the housing relative to post-surgery recovery—the total stay is expected to be two months. The Gloria Espino Bone Marrow Transplant Project Committee intends on advising financial contributors in advance of their contributions as to the precise utilization of all funds to be contributed when expenses indirectly related to the transplant surface, such as housing.

Further donations, then, continue to be urgently sought.

A DVD interview of Gloria Espino explaining her urgent plight can be acquired for viewing (for organizational, philanthropic, charitable, individual use) by contacting Jose Luis Arias at his art studio at Correo 73, phone: (415) 154-9005

Donation logistical info as follows:

Checks in pesos payable to Monex Casa de Bolsa SA de CV.; specify (on memo blank) Gloria Espino, Account 1026145

Checks in US dollars payable to Jose Luis Arias or Jay Vlasak; specify Gloria Espino, Account 1026145

Additional banking inquiries: call Josefa Jonguitud Zuniga 4151549996 or email jonguitud@monex.com.mx 

For US citizens who wish to make tax-deductible donations send checks to:

San Miguel Community Foundation
Dennis M. Hart, President
220 N Zapata Hwy #11
PMB-5K
Laredo, Texas 78040

(Be sure to list Gloria Espino, Account 1026145 at Monex)
For details, contact Jay Vlasak at 415 154 9390, Ext. 108, or email Jay at jayvlasak@gmail.com. 

Jay Vlasak



Editor,

We wish to express our gratitude to everyone who contributed to the success of “Bollywood Festival” for ALMA on October 6.We would like to especially thank the Fenton Family for generously providing all their facilities and staff at Villa Jacaranda and also for contributing part of the proceeds from the movies to ALMA. It is a deserving charity. Please continue to help with donations and volunteers.

A big thank you to Sally Leonard of Sally Gems, Alma Guerrero of Galleria Eclectic, volunteers of ALMA, Guadalupe of BBQ Bob’s and Abelardo Gil of Virgen Jewelry for their invaluable assistance. Last but not least, a muchisimas gracias to our co-chef Señora Guadalupe Aguado Molina, her Indian cooking was delicioso. She and her daughter, Leonor Temblador Aguado made cooking for 70 people a breeze. Thanks again San Miguel for your generosity and hospitality.

Sam and Nadya Chapra




Editor,

I wish that I would have had the help the Olsens provided in their article last week on kids and homework while I was raising my children. Keep up the good work!

Lucille Chayt



Editor,

We are now hearing about the ultimate in outsourcing: depending for the security of our highest officials in Iraq on hired guns. Jeremy Scahill on Bill Moyer’s Journal, October 19 on PBS described highly paid, expensively equipped private guards, like those from Blackwater, working alongside American GI’s on service salaries, some of them reported to have asked the folks back home to send them body armor.

The War on Drugs has been similarly cast. The bad guys have all the money and sophisticated equipment. Few governments can come rival their power. Even prosperous Uncle Sam is often outgunned, and now our host Mexico is trying to get help from the US to narrow the gap between the government’s budget and the drug lords’ resources.

Both of which strike me as the ultimate triumph of the free market, in which money not only talks; it dictates the rules of the game.

Pat Hirschl




Editor,

As a member of the foreign community here in San Miguel for five years as of the beginning of November, I’m thinking ahead to the celebration of the Day of the Dead and thinking about how we foreigners participate in this meaningful and most Mexican of holidays. It seems to me there are three levels of celebration: The most public celebration takes place in the Jardìn.

The totally private part of the fiesta consists of altars being erected in the homes to honor loved ones that the family has lost, not necessarily recently, but whose absence they still feel strongly—their muertitos (little dead ones).

The third, sort of semi-public celebration takes place on both November 1 and 2 in the local Panteon, and this is the one I would like to focus on. Families stream into the cemetery all day long on these days, bearing other mementos of their loved ones, as well as armloads of flowers and plants, buckets and water. Here they decorate profusely the gravesites of their muertitos and gather together as a family, eat or pray or play music or reminisce. There is a wide range of beliefs about the practice and meaning of all this. Not all actually expect their dead loved one to join them in this celebratory feast. Some do.

It seems to me that a much more appropriate and fulfilling way for us foreigners to participate in this part of the fiesta, rather than just coming to the Panteon with our cameras and intruding—some more sensitively than others, where these families are playing out their annual ritual—would be to participate. We too could bring armloads of flowers and other decorations or mementos to decorate the gravesites in the large section of the Panteon which is reserved for foreigners. On these days of November 1 and 2, this section has been the saddest of places. It holds the gravesites of many foreigners, some of whom lived in San Miguel for many years and made outstanding contributions to the community, but whose families and contemporaries are no longer here to celebrate them. Why not change that and make our section of the Panteon glow with remembrance on those days too? That way, we would be participants in a totally appropriate and inclusive way, and not just observers of the annual fiesta.

Muriel Bevilacqua Logan