'We Have a Lot to Grieve About': Día de los Muertos in 2020

In a year marked heavily by grief — whether wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, police brutality or state violence — Día de los Muertos carries a renewed power for community healing.

And while public officials this fall are discouraging public gatherings, many are encouraging families to find ways to honor loved ones safely from home, like building an altar, sharing stories and playing music in memory of the dead.

KQED Forum spoke to Lara Medina, professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at California State University, Northridge about how many events are finding safe sanctuary from COVID-19 online this year, how the pandemic is sharpening the experience of loss for so many in the Latinx community, and why a society that often prefers to neglect feelings of grief can draw lessons from Día de los Muertos in how to heal, cope and understand death.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Carrying Forth Día de los Muertos in 2020

The majority of us in this society are experiencing grief either from the pandemic or from police and state violence on brown and Black bodies. So we have a lot to grieve about.

And even if we’re not going to be involved in an event, virtually, it’s really important that we do this in our living spaces. Even if we’re alone, we can do it.

But creating art is [also] a big part of this tradition. It’s really easy now to just go out to commercial stores and buy ready-made products representing the dead. That really robs us of the practice of creating art for our dead. So I highly recommend that we create art. Simple things. There are so many online resources now, but also [we should] support our independent artists who are making art for the dead.

What most organizations and schools are doing — and universities — is doing it virtually, so that their members in their organization or public members are able to actually show their ofrendas through Zoom events. So that we can still have this communal experience. And seeing the ofrendas more up close to the camera, it’s going to be really exciting.

UC Berkeley’s Latinx Research Center is going to be doing a virtual event. [Community Arts Center] Self Help Graphics in Los Angeles will be doing a virtual event. At my university, we’re starting with what’s called a noche de ofrenda, where it is a more intimate experience of showing the ofrendas, but also telling a bit of the stories, called testimonials, about who we’re remembering.

So, the pandemic is not preventing us from practicing this tradition.

On How Día de los Muertos Brings the Living Closer to the Dead

That is what offers healing: that it allows us to remain in relationship with our dead. I often say it allows us to continue to commune with our dead. Because through the ofrenda, it’s like a bridge between the living and the dead.

The healing that happens as we cross that bridge, or as the dead cross that bridge? That’s ongoing. It just doesn’t last the few days that we call Día de los Muertos. That continues on throughout the year and then annually. We renew it; we renew that relationship; we strengthen the communication. And that’s what makes this healing ongoing.

It’s a beautiful way to teach family history, particularly to young ones who might not have known those who are being remembered in our families. And so through the photographs or the symbols, we can teach that family history to our young ones.

If we have a beautiful ofrenda in our homes or in our communal spaces, the next important part of this tradition is to tell the stories about who we’re remembering in front of the ofrenda. And even if you’re alone, you can do this by recalling the memories.

On the Commercialization and Appropriation of Día de los Muertos

This is not a Mexican Halloween. And it’s really important to state that, because still so many people are confused because of the shared image of the skeleton … yes, all people of all ethnicities can participate in this tradition, and receive its healing properties if they really understand what this tradition is about. And the essential aspects of it, the celebrations for Día de los Muertos, are fine or beautiful — but there has to be a more meditative and reflective aspect to what we do.

I often say one of the biggest challenges right now [around Día de los Muertos] is to retain its authenticity. That doesn’t mean it has to stay the same, or look the same every year. But we have to keep the spiritual essence of it.

In terms of a time to raise other political issues, it can be used that way … Rent control, gentrification, police violence, [a statement] can be done through an ofrenda. But you really have to be careful how this mission is being commercialized. We’re not falling for that.