Sam Reguerra

Dia de los Muertos was never a tradition in our family since my Grandparents moved together to America at a young age to start a family and my mother and aunts and uncles grew up with their time split between here and Mexico but ultimately assimilated to American traditions. So I tried to get my family involved with my altar process. I found out that my grandmother had never made a home altar either, she told me that in her hometown of Pachuca, Hidalgo it was already relatively modern and the decorations were usually store bought and set up in the cemeteries. So when I mentioned the project to them they went to many latinx/ hispanic markets in LA and did what they would’ve done in Pachuca and purchased many decorations. I found it very thoughtful and was excited to get them started in creating this altar in the hopes that this would be a tradition for us. I worked on gathering objects to represent the four elements in the altar and in the structure, adding levels and smudging the area. We are waiting till Nov 1 to add photos and more marigolds, since right now the weather is very windy. Our altar is on our porch for our neighbors to see and hopefully get inspired. We live in a community with many Latinx people but Halloween is much more popular. When making the altar many neighbors and friends came by and asked about our Halloween decorations and I was very aggressive in correcting them and informing them that this was meant for Day of The Dead. I hope I can ween my family off store bought items and consumerism and soon we can have a traditional handmade Dia De Los Muertos.