Out In Town

Dia de los Muertos: To die for!

Mexicans take very few things seriously and death is not necessarily one of them. This is especially obvious on El Dia de los Muertos. The famous “calaveritas” take puns at the imaginary arrival of death to take celebrities or politicians away to their final resting place. This is a very unusual way to treat the unstoppable huesuda (bony death) as it walks around the Aztec land. The calaveritas are made of a couple of verses that rhyme while describing the interaction of death and its victim. The following is an example of a calaverita dedicated to Mexican President Vicente Fox:

Estaba Vicente Fox
sus botas café limpiando
cuando llegó la pelona
para llevarlo cargando.

Vicente Fox was cleaning his brown boots when the bald headed one arrived to carry him away.

Se le acercó frente a frente
sin que la vieran los guardias
y le dijo "Ciertamente
hasta aquí llega tu andada"

She got close, face to face, and the guards did not see her. She told him, “Certainly, up to here is where your walking ends.”

Fox le dijo "Mira flaca,
no me puedo ir todavía...
Me falta lo de Oaxaca
y lo del muro en la orilla..."

Fox told her, “Look, skinny one, I can’t leave just yet. I still have pending Oaxaca and the fence on the border…”

La parca le dió un coscorrón
"Ya vámonos de los Pinos...
Ahi se queda Calderón
'pa lidiar con los vecinos...

The skeletal one smacked him on the head and said, “Let’s leave Los Pinos. There we’re leaving Calderon to deal with these issues…”

De Oaxaca no te apures,
que tu angustia se mitigue...
Pronto volverán a clases
porque Ruiz es el que sigue..." - Online Calaverita

“About Oaxaca, don’t worry, let your anxiety fade away … the school classes are starting up soon because after I take you Ruiz is next…”

Calaveritas are just one of the many unique traits of this Mexican holiday. The ofrendas or memorial offerings to loved ones who have passed away, are filled with centuries of traditions. The ofrendas are set up at schools, offices, churches and homes to remember those who are no longer alive. Cempasuchil flowers, candy skulls, candles, very ornate paper-mache designs, photographs, dishes with their favorite foods and many of the things that they used to like when they were alive are placed on the ofrendas (including tequila and some other alcoholic beverages). It is believed that on this day, their spirits come back to visit their families and will eat and drink what has been placed on the ofrenda to them. Also on this day, the pan de muerto – day of the death bread – is baked. It is eaten with chocolate or traditional atole after one has visited the graves of one’s dead relatives. Needless to say, cemeteries are the busiest places on this day. Many stories are re-told for the hundredth time by the elderly about the deceased ones. I remember my grandmother, while setting up her ofrenda to her dead relatives, she began telling us stories about them. This storytelling will not end until after the Dia de los Muertos was over. There was a purpose for every dish, there was a reason for every skull, it was a day to remember not that we are mortal, but instead that we never really leave this place. Dia de los Muertos, especially in Central Rural/Traditional Mexico, is a very elaborate day … a day truly worth to die for!

posted by Guerrero Azteca @ 4:06 PM