Día de los Muertos, which translates to the Day of the Dead, is a Mexican holiday celebrated on the first two days of November every year.
The holiday is seen as a season, a feeling, or a celebration for people to honor dearly departed friends, loved ones, or animals who have died.
According to Sacramento State graduate and current Solano County resident Natalia Cerrato, Día de los Muertos is the day people call on their ancestors.
“It’s our time to bring them back and host them and visit with them,” Cerrato said. “I’m a participant, a beneficiary of this cultural experience, the celebration that has happened on a yearly basis in my life, and is why I feel so passionate about it.”
In Sacramento, the Latino Center for Arts & Culture honors the holiday with its annual event El Panteón, a celebration that holds cultural significance.
The Latino Center for Arts & Culture, founded in 1972, will host their 16th annual El Panteón de Sacramento event next weekend, starting on Friday, October 31.
The event will be held at 2700 Front Street and will feature live music, vendors, food trucks, and cultural activities.
Bridgette Rangel-Rexford, the executive director of the Latino Center for Arts & Culture, said the event is a way for people to connect with those who have passed.
“For some people, this can be very spiritual in that they believe that they are meeting the people during the special time of year that have passed through what would be sort of like a portal to them,” Rangel-Rexford said. “And the way that they access their loved ones that have passed is by setting up an altar.”
Altars are like art installations with three different layers that have meaning, according to Rangel-Rexford. Over 30 altars will be created by family and friends to honor the dead, decorated with sugar skulls, flowers and personal items.
“The colors mean something. The salt that they use means something. All the elements help them access the dead that have passed,” she said. “For others, it’s more of a celebration of life, and it’s a much more lively perspective. But no matter what, this is all about connection and connection to our culture and keeping up traditions that have been around for hundreds of years.”
Another way people could honor the dead at El Panteón is by building tombs. Rangel-Rexford said they dig holes like a cemetery, and this year they have about 50.
“You dedicate this grave to someone that has passed,” she said. “And this personally is really powerful to me. I had lost my twin when she was in the womb, and there’s no place for me to go visit to mourn over. There’s no grave site that I can go visit. So for me, this is really important.”
Rangel-Rexford emphasized the community connection and cultural traditions, noting that the El Panteón event has grown since it started with only three altars in Downtown Sacramento.
Cerrato said El Panteón is a “spirited and powerful event” that will leave many feeling replenished. She mentioned that she’s an Aztec dancer and that Mexicans believe dance is prayer.
“It’s sacred, our movement, but also so are our words. So we think about floor y canto — Flower and Song—because the songs that we sing, those are prayers, the flowers that bloom for us, those are answered prayers, and those flowers are also going to die,” Cerrato said. “I’m going to die one day, my mom’s going to die one day, my grandma died. And that’s something that I’m really proud of, being a Mexican and celebrating Días de los Muertos.”
Despite the continuous ICE raids on Latino communities going on throughout the country, Rangel-Rexford said the reason they decided to have the event was because people kept asking.
“Community members came to us asking, basically with tears in their eyes, ‘Will you have this? I need this. I want this,’” she said. “I feel really hopeful about the turnout, but also I feel like everyone should do what feels right for them and what feels comfortable.”
El Panteón begins on Halloween from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., continues on Saturday from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m., and concludes on Sunday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Cerrato encourages everyone, regardless of their ethnic background, to enjoy the event and take away the healing feeling that comes from Día de los Muertos.
“People come and bring offerings, their flowers, their velas, their candles, ” Cerrato said. “I do believe that it’s an opening of a portal.”
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