{"id":495941,"date":"2026-10-14T15:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T15:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/495941\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T15:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T15:36:09","slug":"day-of-the-dead-in-the-bay-area-la-catrina-sculpture-keeps-watch-over-oakland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/495941\/","title":{"rendered":"Day of the Dead in the Bay Area: La Catrina sculpture keeps watch over Oakland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the lead-up to this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/10\/07\/dia-de-los-muertos-activities-in-milpitas-include-wellness-fair-5k\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">D\u00eda de Muertos<\/a>, Oakland has a new guardian keeping watch: a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/10\/01\/photos-oakland-welcomes-la-catrina-from-mexico-in-the-heart-of-fruitvale\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">34-foot-tall La Catrina sculpture<\/a>, made by artists in Mexico City and trucked and erected here in the Fruitvale Village.<\/p>\n<p>Reportedly the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcbayarea.com\/news\/local\/la-catrina-dia-de-los-muertos-oakland\/4146809\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">tallest La Catrina<\/a> right now in the U.S. \u2014 such figures are <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/La_Calavera_Catrina\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">traditionally made<\/a> to celebrate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/10\/07\/redwood-city-celebrates-dia-de-los-muertos-on-nov-8\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Day of the Dead<\/a> \u2013 the massive and skull-faced creation was commissioned by the Unity Council (among others) and fabricated by artist Romain Greco, of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/artsumex\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">art collective Artsumex<\/a>. It will become a centerpiece at Fruitvale\u2019s D\u00eda de Muertos Festival, taking place Nov. 1, which typically draws as many as 100,000 visitors with live music, Latin American art and altar installations.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Ballet Folkl\u00f3rico de Fremont High School performs during the official welcome ceremony for La Catrina, a monumental 34-foot sculpture handcrafted in Mexico City and installed in the heart of the Fruitvale district in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)\" width=\"3200\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791992169_241_EBT-L-CATRINA-1002-2.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"13110610\" \/>Ballet Folkl\u00f3rico de Fremont High School performs during the official welcome ceremony for La Catrina, a monumental 34-foot sculpture handcrafted in Mexico City and installed in the heart of the Fruitvale district in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLa Catrina is one of the most recognized symbols of D\u00eda de Muertos, standing for remembrance, the celebration of life and the enduring connection between generations,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitoakland.com\/la-catrina\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">writes the nonprofit tourism group, Visit Oakland<\/a>. \u201cDesigned with outstretched arms, Oakland\u2019s La Catrina will serve as a powerful gesture of welcome and embrace \u2014 symbolically welcoming migrants into the Fruitvale community while expressing our shared values of inclusion, care, belonging and cultural pride.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Details: On view at 3301 East 12th St., Oakland (next to the Fruitvale BART station); <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitoakland.com\/la-catrina\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">visitoakland.com\/la-catrina<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the lead-up to this year\u2019s D\u00eda de Muertos, Oakland has a new guardian keeping watch: a 34-foot-tall&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[192726,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-495941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-fruitvales-dia-de-muertos-festival-la-catrina-activities-how-to-make-sugar-skulls-food-drink-beverage-traditional-san-francisco-bay-area-day-of-the-dead-events-celebratoion","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}