Life, death celebrated at Santa Rosa Día de los Muertos event

Irma Garcia spent Sunday afternoon carefully squeezing green, blue, pink and purple pastel frosting from plastic tubes onto a stark white sugar skull, creating an ornate likeness of Frida Kahlo.

Garcia will place the tribute to the famed artist on an altar in her Santa Rosa home as part of her family’s long-standing tradition of commemorating Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday to remember and honor loved ones who have died.

Garcia, 44, has been celebrating Día de los Muertos, which spans Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, since her childhood in Veracruz, Mexico. Now, she hopes to pass that legacy to her two children, who sat beside her at the History Museum of Sonoma County, creating their own sugar skulls to honor their late grandparents and uncle.

“The skull represents the people who died,” said Garcia, who this year will recognize her parents, brother and sister with altars piled with food, pictures, flowers and other tokens of remembrance.

“For us, it’s not being scared,” she said about Day of the Dead. “This (holiday) is an opportunity to have a connection with the dead and enjoy your life and being ready, because you never know when death will happen.”

She was among the hundreds who attended Sunday’s Día de los Muertos family event, which featured an exhibit with altars, sculptures and paintings from local artists, traditional dancing and sugar skull decorating. The museum’s parking lot was filled with powerful drumbeats and the clattering of ayoyotes, or rattling seed pods attached to the ankles of performers from Danza Azteca Ohtli Yoliliztl, who opened the event with a blessing.

“People may look at the (performance) as entertainment, but for us, we’re blessing the event, the organizers and the museum itself for preserving the history from Sonoma County and, on this day, remembering the tradition of other peoples,” said Leticia Romero, 57, a founder of the Santa Rosa dance group. “Day of the Dead is honoring those who have passed on. It’s a way of not letting go.”

For Kate Silver, the event was about creating tradition with her 2-year-old granddaughter, Stella Gutierrez. Silver, a Sebastopol resident, brought small photos of Gutierrez’s great grandparents to place on a community altar alongside candles, sugar skulls, handwritten messages and colorful marigolds.

“It’s important for people to understand their roots, and who they are,” Silver, 69, said. “Stella’s mom and dad want her to understand the culture here, and of Mexico.

“I love the celebration. I think it’s a wonderful thing to honor relatives,” Silver added. “In American culture, we don’t have a grandparents’ day, and this kind of brings that into our culture.”

The museum’s Día de los Muertos exhibit, which runs through Nov. 4, includes artwork from Martín Zúñiga, Mario Uribe and Rubén Guzmán, as well as Liz Camino-?Byers’ collection of folk art. It also features murals that artist Peter Perez created with students from Community Action Partnership and ArtStart, along with portraits of lost loved ones from local students.

“For some people, (Día de los Muertos) has been cathartic - it’s being able to release all these pent-up emotions you’ve never been able to express by leaving a message for someone who has passed,” said Perez, a 79-year-old artist who also helped launch Petaluma’s Day of the Dead event.

Cynthia Leung, the museum’s director of public programs and tours, said the exhibit is a window into a vibrant culture.

“I hope people come away with the feeling of the richness of Mexican culture. … It’s an important part of our heritage in California, and I hope people embrace it,” she said. “It’s a great way to celebrate people you love who have passed away - a lot of people in America don’t have a way to express that.”

You can reach Staff Writer Hannah Beausang at 707-521-5214 or hannah.beausang@pressdemocrat.com.