Day of the Dead altars on display Angela Cara Pancrazio
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 2, 2006 12:00 AM
Carlos Navarrete collected sugar skulls and votive candles, baked loaves of bread and adorned the centerpiece of the Día de los Muertos altar with an image of Nuestra Señora Morena, Our Brown Lady. He has no photograph of his grandmother. But he wrote next to the altar: "I will always carry her in my heart."
Emma S. Gonzalez built an altar, too. Hers was in remembrance of "my unforgettable mother." She draped her altar with samples of needlepoint and crochet, two of her mother's favorite pastimes.
Pablo Luna's altar seemed to climb toward the heavens inside the seventh-annual Día de los Muertos Festival Exhibit at Arizona State University's Museum of Anthropology. advertisement
Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is the Mexican three-day holiday honoring loved ones that began Tuesday, leading up to the actual Day of the Dead today. Honoring loved ones in an individualistic way with an altar is a way of communicating with them.
Luna stacked the tower with all the things his daughter Citlalli loved: a Strawberry Shortcake doll, a well-worn copy of Dr. Seuss's Huevos Verdes con Jamón, and a box of Reese's candy pieces.
"Although tragedy has taken its toll on our family," wrote Luna, "the altar has helped us to heal and to remember her beautiful spirit."
Marco A. Albarrán's was less traditional, a tabletop altar constructed mostly of plastic and transparent materials.
"Most of my altars are done to attract the spirits that are still here in the world," Albarrán said.
Families honor the dead with altars decorated with fruits, breads and other gifts to greet the spirits when they are believed to return home each year on Nov. 2.