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Last year, Veronica Estila’s father, Jorgito, passed away at the age of 79 after a bad fall. He had been in fragile health: First a stroke, then a brain tumor diagnosis. The family hoped he would recover when doctors saw that his tumor had not advanced, but then he suffered the fall.
After his sudden death, Estila prayed for a sign that Jorgito was still watching over her. It appeared one night, she said: a frog in her San Jose bathroom that looked like a coquí, the fingernail-sized, yellowish-brown frog native to her father’s childhood home, Puerto Rico.
While life brought Jorgito from the island to San Francisco, he had always kept Puerto Rico in his heart. A Puerto Rico flag rested in front of Jorgito’s ofrenda that Veronica built for the Dia de los Muertos celebration at Potrero del Sol Park in the Mission District.
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The First Exposures altar honoring the ancestors of the program’s mentees. Photo by Sage Rios Mace.
Jorgito’s was just one of more than 20 ofrendas that were on display on Sunday morning for the Dia de los Muertos Festival of the Altars, an annual all-day event hosted by the Marigold Project, a non-profit that supports healing within the Latine and indigenous communities. Months ahead of Dia de los Muertos, Project Marigold offered online sign-ups for community members to reserve a spot at the park to exhibit their ofrendas. On Sunday, hundreds gathered to see the ofrendas that snaked through the expanse of the park along a paved pathway. Most of the altars were adorned with marigolds, papel picado, candles and framed family photos. One ofrenda rose above the others, some 7-feet-tall, with bright-blue cloth panels and a few photos at its base. The towering ofrenda was built by mentees of First Exposures, the Mission-based non-profit that runs a photography mentorship program for teens, who had chosen to honor their ancestors.
Jorgito Estila
Veronica Estila’s altar featured photos of her father, Jorgito and his sister-in-law, Irene Rivera who passed away four months after Jorgito. A cross of yellow lily flowers lay on the ground in front of an elevated altar which displayed photos of Jorgito, a Home Depot bucket and a red 49ers beanie. In one photo, Jorgito flashes a large smile from where he sits at a slot machine in a casino. In another photo, Jorgito’s sister sits outside, smiling in a red dress, her dark hair pulled back from her face.
Jorgito Estila’s ofrenda at the Festival of the Altars in the Mission District. Photo by Sage Rios Mace.
Growing up, Estila’s father was the anchor of the family, she said. He worked long days and was skilled in woodworking. He also had a “musical gift.” Though he had no formal training, she said, he played the bongos and “would just pick instruments up.” Oftentimes, he also improvised with kitchen utensils, like a cheese grater, for in-house salsa sessions.
Scrolling through her phone, Estila shared a video of her elderly father in a khaki fedora, drumming on bongos as the reggaeton song “Otra” by Pitbull and Don Omar blared from patio speakers. In another, Jorgito danced beside the kitchen counter, shaking his hands and hips as she laughed behind the camera. “He did it all up until his last stroke where he started losing mobility,” she said. When he could no longer play, her uncles stepped in to make music for him instead.
“Big Tone”
A few steps from Estila’s ofrenda, another Puerto Rican family gathered around a memorial for their son, Jose Antonio Echevarria, better known as “Big Tone,” who passed away at 56. Besides a couple of years in Puerto Rico with his grandmother, he grew up in the city’s Mission District on Shotwell Street.
Leaning against a tree, Tone’s gold basketball uniform glittered beside a pair of sneakers and a large photo of Tone smiling. Across two tables, flowers and sweet treats were laid out, beside an array of photos showing Tone’s childhood spent with friends in the Mission, fishing trips, and his basketball career. Gathered at the ofrenda, were Tone’s parents and sister, his neighbors whom he considered family, and his childhood best friend, Tony Lucero.
Jose Antonio Echevarria’s basketball jersey on display at the Festival of the Altars in the Mission District. Photo by Sage Rios Mace.
The former semi-pro basketball player traveled worldwide to play for Puerto Rico and won gold medals in the Pan American Games in Colombia. He was known for his tall 6-foot-8 frame, his big personality and even bigger smile, said Lucero.
The pair met at age four and “instantly hit it off.” They grew up together and spent countless afternoons playing on the street with their neighbors. “He could talk to anybody, no matter the type of person,” Lucero said of his best friend. “He was the life of the party.”
Lucero pointed to a framed photo of himself, Echevarria and another childhood friend. “That was our little group and we did everything together.”
Even when Echevarria left to pursue his basketball career, traveling for long stretches of time, they stayed close. “I couldn’t see myself growing up with a better best friend,” Lucero said. “That’s my brother.”
Aurora and Gary
Across the park, Veronica Garcia was sitting beside the ofrenda of three-year-old Aurora Vixen DuHadway, the daughter of her best friend. “My niece in every way except blood,” Garcia said of the child who tragically passed away in an accident in 2017.
The ofrenda honoring the life of Aurora Vixen DuHadway at the Festival of the Altars. Photo by Sage Rios Mace.
Beside Garcia, a photo of a toddler with white-blond hair and bright blue eyes smiled up at her. The table was decorated in pink — Aurora’s favorite color — and adorned with dragonflies and small dolls. Aurora loved gardening and wearing bows in her hair, Garcia said, “especially for her dance classes.”
“She was the reason I started doing the ofrendas,” Garcia said. “I needed to do something with my grief because it was so huge.”
Aurora’s ofrenda was not the only one that Garcia built for Sunday’s festival. Across two tables, Garcia shared photos of many loved ones and even pets who had passed away.
On one table she had displayed about a dozen frames – each labeled with the name of the person who had passed. “In 2022 I lost six people within three months,” Garcia said.
One photo showed Garcia embracing a man in a tight hug on a sunny beach. The frame read “Gary” with “Fiancé” printed on the bottom half. The pair met online through a mutual friend and though they lived apart — Garcia in Northern California and Gary in Southern California — the two fell in love through emails, text messages and late-night phone calls before finally meeting in person.
Garcia pointed to the photo of the couple on the beach. “That picture is from our first date in person,” she said. “It was an amazing date because we already had such a strong connection.”
The two were never actually married; they had broken up about nine months before their planned wedding date, but they remained friends until Gary’s death. Garcia had visited him every day in the hospital after he became ill from a tooth infection. She was in the room with him when he passed. “Grief is very hard. It can be debilitating at times and overwhelming,” Garcia said. “But creating the ofrendas helps me bring their memories back.”
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