Thousands gathered to immerse themselves in culture and tradition through Santa Ana’s Día de Los Muertos celebrations this weekend.
Starting with the procession of La Catrina, a skeletal woman wearing a fancy dress, who satirizes social classes of Latinos and a reminder that no matter your social class in the living world, the dead leave with nothing.
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“The Catrinas, from the Mexican Revolution that remind us that it doesn’t matter how elegant and rich you are, we are all going to end the same,” said Socorro Sarmiento, co-founder of El Centro Cultural de México and committee member for Noche de Altares, at the OC Board of Supervisors meeting where their Día de Los Muertos event planning was recognized.
Her presence is felt at every altar, as she lights a candle at each one, where papel picado, food offerings and photos are carefully placed.
“Everyone looks forward to La Catrina coming around, because she represents the significance of the connection to death, which, in turn, you know, brings us life,” said Rudy Cordova, lead organizer and president of Viva La Vida – a celebration of Día de Los Muertos that has occurred annually for the last ten years in Downtown Santa Ana.
“Once she lights up the altars, you’re able to in turn light up all the candles in your altar for every picture, every person you’re commemorating on there,” he explained of the tradition.
“They find their guidance. They’re, you know, able to visit with us. And it kind of brings the whole day of Día de Los Muertos into being.”
The symbol – seen today in Santa Ana Day of the Dead parades, costumes and La Catrina processions to light candles on altars – has origins in a satirical illustration by Mexican engraver José Guadalupe Posada showing a calavera, or a skeleton, wearing a large feathered hat with a wide grin.
In the original 1912 print, La Catrina is known as “Calavera Garbancera” – a term used to peasants of indigenous ancestry that sold garbanzo beans in street markets. These women attempted to pass as upper-class by dressing fashionable and powdering their faces – adopting Eurocentric customs to blend into Mexico’s urbanizing society.
Decades later the symbol of life, death and society was featured as the centerpoint in Diego Rivera’s 1947 mural “Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park.”
Día de Los Muertos and Downtown Santa Ana’s two celebrations – Noche de Altares and Viva La Vida — were recognized at a recent board of supervisors meeting.
“For the past 20 years, Día Los Muertos has been celebrated here in Downtown Santa Ana,” said Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, who is Bolivian and presented a resolution to Socorro Sarmiento and Cordova.
“And it’s one of the most successful events in the downtown.”
“I know that we’ve had close to 10, 15,000 people come and show up, because these offerings, and these ofrendas, altars, are works of art,” he said. “And if you go out there and you see them, you’ll see that they’re not just, you know, done randomly. They’re done with a lot of care, they’re done with a lot of art, they’re done with a lot of love.”
The Supervisor applauded the organizations for “continuing the work” in carrying out celebrations downtown.
Latinos in countries such as El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala and Bolivia celebrate Día de Los Muertos the first two days of November. The celebration can be traced back decades before the Spanish colonization of Mexico to Mayan and Aztec traditions of honoring the dead.
“To understand the importance of Noche de Altares in Santa Ana, and to be able to really enjoy an altar, we need to have an understanding of the long historical process involved in each altar,” said Socorro Sarmiento.
“In our altars, since the pre-Colonial times passing through colonialism, the strong influence of the Mexican Revolution and the migration to this country, all this legacy of this long history is reflected in the offerings seen in our Santana family altars.”
Erika Taylor is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow and photojournalist. You can find her on Instagram @camerakeepsrolling or email at etaylor@voiceofoc.org
Julie Leopo contributed reporting to this story.
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