OCTOBER 30, 2006 entry taken from my previous blog
The streets were filled w/ the faces of death; young and old. Yet this wasn't a scene out of a movie, nor was it another one of my nightmares. In fact, the Austin community gathered to help celebrate the Day of the Dead.
Saturday, October 28,2006, Mexic-Arte museum held its 23rd annual "Día de los Muertos" parade and street festival. If you can just imagine a sea full of esqueletos y calaveras dancing their cares away in the street. People came dressed as La Catrina, rockeros, caballeros, brujas, esqueletos, fútbolers, you name it and they were there. Yours truly had the opportunity to walk the parade to help promote my upcoming show called La Pastorela. I wanted to portray a positive message w/ my face so I had one of the girls write "corazón" on my forehead. My cast mates and I dressed up as shepherds, angels and devils w/ painted faces and joined the group of parade goers. The parade route began at Plaza Saltillo then headed one block north to 6th Street then west to Congress Avenue. Once at Congress we headed south to Mexic Arte and enjoyed the Aztec dancers and exhibits geared towards educating the public about this celebration.
The Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, is a celebration held on November 1st and 2nd to remember our loved ones who have passed away. This tradition is celebrated by many Latino cultures but seems to be more popular in Mexico. The day consists of decorating churches, homes, altars, cemeteries in colorful flowers, candles and papel picado. Family members also bring ofrendas to their loved one's gravesite which sometimes include pan dulce, velas, favorite food dishes in life, monedas, flores and trinkets. Each of these serves a purpose in our loved one's journey to visit w/ us for that night. The tradition isn't as morbid as it seems; on the contrary, it's a celebration that allows us to reconnect w/ those lost and appreciate the family around us.
The most exciting thing for me was seeing the nostalgic cars, the puppeteers w/ their ginormous puppets, the Chihuahuas, and the different people who gathered for this event. You would think that just the Mexicanos were out and about celebrating, but you're wrong. The crowd consisted of Mexicanos, Cubanos, Puerto Riqueños, Anglos, Colombianos, African Americans, Argentinos, Asians, the list goes on and on. But out of all of this the most beautiful thing I saw were the children, who were clearly not Latino, taking part in an event such as this.
It makes me happy to know that these parents are trying to expose their children to other cultures and teach them the importance of understanding one another. Its one thing to know about other groups of people, but it means so much more to understand their traditions and history. So I applaud those parents and their efforts to create a more open-minded society in the next generation. Lemme tell ya, it's a sad thing to see people who fear other groups becos of their color, their language, or their appearance. Maybe "fear" is the wrong word, but hate stems from ignorance which feeds off of the fear of not knowing.
If you're interested in learning more about this tradition, please visit:
http://www.dayofthedead.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead
No comments:
Post a Comment