Create a Day of the Dead altar at home to remember loved ones

Creating a colorful and aromatic Day of the Dead altar invites tender and joyful memories

In Petaluma’s Oak Hill Park 20 years ago, artist Peter Perez met a woman who complained that she couldn’t convince the City Council to start a Day of the Dead tradition in town.

Although Perez is a second-generation Mexican American, his family, perhaps under pressure to assimilate, did not celebrate Dia de los Muertos, the traditional days of remembrance, which fall on Nov. 1 and 2.

But with a lively artistic sensibility, Perez instantly recognized the possibilities in a colorful holiday that can be both serious and irreverent, somber and joyful. That chance encounter led Perez to be one of the key creators of what would become an annual cross-cultural community tradition in Petaluma, with art, music, dance and even a procession.

His efforts were so successful that Perez was recruited to curate Dia de los Muertos celebrations in other communities as well, from the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco to the Oakland Museum. He also sparked a celebration in his hometown of Anaheim, as well as Fullerton, San Juan Capistrano, San Diego and as far away as Australia.

The 81-year-old artist and designer is credited with helping to spread Day of the Dead traditions throughout the country, with many non-Latinos now embracing the imagery and art of the celebration. The primary components of Dia de los Muertos are the altars or ofrendas, filled with photos, candles, flowers and offerings to lure the spirits of departed friends, loved ones and even pets back for a visit.

Many more people now participate in community Day of the Dead celebrations, and they’re also creating their own ofrendas at home, adorning them with photos, food and images of skulls and skeletons, or calacas, as they are called in Spanish. Big chain stores like Target have sold Day of the Dead products such as decorated skulls, whimsical skeleton figures and cut paper banners for the last few years.

The box office success of the Academy Award-winning animated film “Coco,” in which a little boy named Miguel finds himself in the lively Land of the Dead, also introduced Dia de los Muertos to a wider audience. People unfamiliar with the fanciful and loving celebration of the lives of the dead were enchanted not just by the touching storyline but by the breathtakingly beautiful and macabre imagery of singing and dancing skeletons. Perez served as a cultural consultant for the Pixar film.

Not everyone is thrilled with the commercialization of Day of the Dead. But it’s not necessary to go shopping to create a meaningful altar of your own, with photos and items you already have.

At a time of heightened sensitivity over cultural appropriation, Perez, who oversaw the design of the Museum of Sonoma County’s Day of the Dead art and altar exhibit this year and co-created an altar recognizing the hundreds of thousands of people who have died from COVID-19, says he sees the increasing adoption of the holiday into broader American culture as a positive thing. The themes, he said, are common to the human experience, and sharing can lead to cross-cultural understanding.

“It’s such an incredibly healthy community thing where everybody can participate,” said Perez, 81. “The one thing we have in common is that we all are going to die. That is an interesting concept. Day of the Dead however, is not so much an acknowledgment of someone’s death as it is a celebration of their life and recognizing that they are important enough to remember.”

Remembering loved ones

In addition to participating in community events, like The Museum of Sonoma County’s Day of the Dead exhibition of art and altars, many Latino families create ofrendas at home. It is something anyone can try. Although there are traditional elements to a Day of the Dead altar, it’s OK to be creative and original.

“There is not one way to do it. You’re moved by spirit as you’re doing it,” said Leticia Rios Valentin, a member of the Danza Azteca Ohtli Yoliliztli de Santa Rosa, during the exhibit’s opening reception on Zoom.

The dance troupe, founded to maintain Aztec culture and language, contributed two altars to the museum exhibit: one with a water theme, inspired by the Azteca ritual of honoring water at the harvest, and the other dedicated to the Aztec culture, with a majestic headdress and pictures of Rios Valentin’s mother and great-grandmother.

“The things you see on the altar are opportunities to share experiences you might have had with a loved one or different stories. That is how their memory lives on from generation to generation,” she said.

Day of the Dead originated with the Aztecs 3,000 years ago as a festival to keep alive in memory and spirit people from the community who were no longer living. Spanish conquistadors and colonialists, seeking to impose Catholicism on native customs, blended it with their All Saints and All Souls days on Nov. 1 and 2 and spread it to different parts of Mexico and Latin America, making it a observance with indigenous roots and European influence.

It is believed that during this brief window of time, spirits can return to the land of the living. Many of the items on the altar — from their favorite food and drink to light from candles and the scent of marigolds and incense — are meant to guide them back.

For Perez, it’s a way to reclaim his family’s culture after it was suppressed when they came to the United States.

“We moved to Anaheim when I was in the first grade. My very first day at the American school they said, ‘Your name is no longer Pedro. Your name is Peter, and you never speak Spanish.’ So the culture, the language, everything was erased starting that day.”

He usually sets up an altar in his kitchen, but this year Perez has created a large ofrenda that consumes the better part of a wall in the living room of his Santa Rosa home, a room adorned with his paintings inspired by Day of the Dead imagery.

The altar is a table covered with a Mexican blanket and a lace tablecloth. On it are photos, small objects and fruits. There are mementos from friends, family and acquaintances, such as a small figure given to him by Doña Inés Muñoz Marín, a former first lady of Puerto Rico and a former neighbor of Perez. Around it are dazzling pieces of his art, like a skull encrusted with faux diamonds.

There is a photo of his grandfather, a lieutenant colonel in the Mexican army, standing with Emilio Zapata and two future presidents of Mexico.

“That is my uncle over there,” he said, pointing to another old photo. “He taught me how to shoot and how to make a kite.” In the back of the altar is a memory box with the photo of the father of a friend who died of a brain tumor. The box is filled with his old watches, and Perez has written on multi-colored blocks of paper around the rim a question the man was known to ask, “How much time do you think you have left?“ Another photo shows a younger Perez with his father, seated in a wheelchair.

“I always put myself on altars. I figure I’ll eventually be there,” Perez said.

He also will incorporate the elements of a traditional altar.

“The essential things are water, one of the elements of life and so the spirits can refresh themselves, favorite foods of whoever you are honoring, tamales if they liked tamales and tequila if they drank tequila,” he said. “The marigold petals you put in a trail to the door so the spirits can find their way back home.”

The important pan de muertos, symbolizing the bread of life, is a traditional part of a Dia de los Muertos altar. So are multicolored banners of papel picado, tissue paper cut with elaborate designs. The paper, which moves in the breeze, represents the wind or air, another element.

The first day of the celebration is All Saints Day, which honors children who died and mothers who died in labor. The second day is All Souls Day, for the adults.

Every altar Perez has created over the last 20 years is unique. For the Museum of Sonoma County exhibit, set up outside in the museum’s sculpture garden this year, he and co-creator Martín Zuñiga built a large-scale piece representing a mask. It refers to the widespread deaths around the world due to the coronavirus. Torn images symbolize the torn fabric of the nation and the world; crosses note the dead. Behind the mask is the Saint of Death; its arms reach out and its robe hangs open, revealing Japanese lanterns that symbolize the coronavirus.

The exhibit is open from 4-7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 5-8.

“I do look forward to this every year, because each one is the same in some ways and yet different,” Perez said. “Hopefully people will be inspired to go to see the altars in the sculpture garden or make one of their own at home.”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com. OnTwitter @megmcconahey.