Mexican Americans balance tradition and modernity in Day of the Dead celebrations

This weekend, Mexican American families across the United States will gather to honor their ancestors with altars, marigolds and sugar skulls on Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. In recent years, the celebration has become increasingly commercialized, leaving many in the community wondering how to preserve this centuries-old tradition while evolving to keep it alive.

Day of the Dead is traditionally an intimate family affair, celebrated with household altars – ofrendas – and visits to the cemetery to decorate graves with flowers and sugar skulls. They bring their deceased loved ones’ favorite foods and hire musicians to perform their favorite songs.

Skeletons are at the heart of the celebrations, symbolizing the return of bones to the living world. Like seeds planted in the earth, the dead disappear temporarily, only to return each year like the annual harvest.

Families place photographs of their ancestors on their ofrendas, which include paper decorations and candles, and are adorned with offerings of items loved by their loved ones, such as cigars, a bottle of mezcal or a plate of mole, tortillas and chocolates.

Day of the Dead celebrations in the United States and Mexico continue to evolve.

Cesáreo Moreno, chief curator and visual director of the National Museum of Mexican Art, said the 2017 release of Disney’s animated film “Coco” transformed celebrations in northern Mexico and made Day of the Dead more popular and commercialized in the United States. American cities hold festivals, and Mexico City has an annual Dia de los Muertos parade.

“Coco” allowed people outside of the Mexican-American community to experience the tradition and appreciate its beauty, Moreno said. But it also made the celebration more marketable.

“The Mexican American community in the United States celebrates Day of the Dead as a cultural expression,” Moreno said. “It’s a healthy tradition and it actually plays an important role in the grieving process. But with ‘Coco,’ this movie really propelled it into mainstream popular culture.”

With its growing popularity, Day of the Dead is often confused with Halloween, which has transformed the way it is celebrated and people’s understanding of it, Moreno said.

In recent years, some, within and outside the Mexican-American community, have constructed renderings devoid of color, leaning toward a more minimalist aesthetic.

Colorful altars have been a part of Mexican and Mesoamerican culture since the arrival of the Spanish and the conversion of Mexico’s indigenous tribes to Catholicism. Some families now build altars without the flowers and papel picado – multi-colored lace wall hangings depicting hearts and skulls – of yesteryear.

Moreno said it was no big deal, as long as the meaning was not lost.

“If people are looking to do something a little different, that’s no problem,” Moreno said. “But if people stop understanding what is at the heart of this tradition, if people start transforming it, that’s what I object to.”

Ana Cecy Lerma, a Mexican American living in Texas, suspects that the minimalist offerings satisfy the desire to create Instagram-worthy content.

“I think you can put whatever you want on an altar and whatever connects you to your loved ones,” Lerma said. “But if your reasoning is just that you like the look, I feel like you’re kind of losing the reason why we make altars.”

Sehila Mota Casper, director of Latinos in Heritage Conservation, a nonprofit organization supporting the preservation of Latinx culture, said U.S. businesses are trying to make money on Dia de los Muertos like they did on Cinco de Mayo, focusing on profit rather than culture. Major chain stores, including Target and Wal-Mart, now sell create-your-own ofrenda kits, Mota Casper said.

“It’s starting to be culturally appropriated by other individuals outside of our diaspora,” she said.

Although she is not Mexican, Beth McRae has lived in Arizona and California and has always been surrounded by Latino culture. She has been creating an altar for the Day of the Dead since 1994.

She began collecting items related to the celebration in the early 1990s and has built a collection of more than 1,000 pieces. And every year she organizes a party to celebrate this day.

“It’s the coolest celebration because you’re inviting your loved ones that you’ve lost,” McRae said.

“I threw my first Day of the Dead party in San Diego with my very meager collection of items,” she continued, “and it became an annual event.”

McRae said she tries to be respectful by making sure the trinkets she places on her ofrenda are from Mexico and focusing on lost loved ones.

“It’s done with respect and love, but it’s an opportunity to bring awareness to people who aren’t familiar with the culture or aren’t from the culture,” McRae said.

Salvador Ordorica, a first-generation Mexican-American living in Los Angeles, said traditions need to be reinvented so younger generations want to keep them alive.

“I think it’s normal for traditions to change,” Ordorica said. “It’s a way to really keep that tradition alive as long as the core of the tradition remains in place.”

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Associated Press reporter Maria Teresa Hernández in Mexico City contributed.