Where Day of the Dead Truly Comes Alive
From a Candlelit Island in Mexico
to a Skeleton Parade in Austin, Texas
Episode Description
Dia de los Muertos is a celebration of life, and we’re stopping by its liveliest festivals. We’ll board a boat to Janitzio, a sacred island in Mexico’s Lake Patzcuaro, where fishermen light the way with giant butterfly nets and a candlelit cemetery glows like a field of stars. In Mexico City, we’ll squeeze in to watch thousands of costumed participants at the world’s largest Dia de los Muertos parade. Back in the West, we’ll feel the rattle of Aztec dancers at a street party in Oakland, California, peek into northern New Mexico’s chapel-like home altars (or ofrendas), and admire runway-worthy skeleton costumes (think corn-husk gowns and massive marigold crowns) at a parade in Austin, Texas.
Our guide, folklorist Rachel González-Martin, grew up celebrating Day of the Dead in Oakland and now teaches courses on Latino cultural arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Along with taking us to some of the best Day of the Dead celebrations in the West, she’ll share how to honor the holiday at home, including what belongs on an ofrenda (and how to make a portable one with an Altoids tin), the meaning behind sugar skulls and other traditional symbols and treats, and why the dead arrive so thirsty.
Celebrations you’ll visit in this episode:
- Isla de Janitzio, Mexico: In the indigenous Purepecha culture, the surrounding lake is considered the gateway to the heavens.
- Mexico City: The city closes a main downtown thoroughfare for the world’s biggest Day of the Dead parade.
- Oakland, California: Danza Azteca invocations, artist-built altars, and a sprawling street festival in the city’s Fruitvale neighborhood.
- Northern New Mexico: Tour ornate home altars and hand-painted retablos rooted in Spanish Catholic tradition.
- Austin, Texas: At the Viva la Vida Festival and Parade, dress en calavera and join the procession.
Guest
Rachel V. González-Martin is an associate professor of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches courses on cultural arts like quinceañera birthday celebrations, Dia de los Muertos commemorations, and Latine monster story traditions. Her book Quinceañera Style: Social Belonging and Latinx Consumer Identities won the 2020 Emily Toth Award for best book in women’s studies and popular culture. Her current book project chases tales of witches and shape-shifting owl women (or Lechuzas) in south Texas.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Rachel grew up attending Day of the Dead celebrations at the Oakland Museum of California and the Oakland public library where her mother worked as a librarian. She currently lives in Austin, where her ofrenda includes a Seagram’s Seven and Seven and a beer for her grandfathers and a photo of Martha the Magnificent, her beloved late dog.
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