Angels and Sugar Skulls at Dia de Los Muertos at MSA annex

After some doubts were expressed in the media concerning having a Community Altar at MSA Annex this year, someone — maybe the MSA management–set up the tables for the Dia de Los Muertos offrenda on the sidewalk facing Avenida del Convento anyway and draped them with the usual bright pink plastic tablecloths. While the tables were smaller, the political situation here was not allowed to interfere with this local tradition honoring the dead. Other people added additional tables. (To see previous Tucson Dia de Los Muertos, go here.)

All Souls Procession urns added this year

This year there was acknowledgement on the altar of the All Souls Procession which has historically ended in or near the Mercado after walking through Menlo Park: there were 2 containers on the altar for people to leave messages to be burnt in the big All Souls urns. The Procession, for those of you reading this outside of Tucson, was founded in 1990 by an artist in remembrance of her friends and it not connected to any church. It is now an enormously popular event with more than 100,000 people participating and is still privately controlled. They are asking for donations on their website. It will be live-streamed on local TV this evening, Sunday, November 9.

Also part of the All Souls weekend is a parade for the Little Angels in Armory Park. Someone set up a separate altar to honor the Littlest Angels in the middle of the MSA Annex altar. So much care is shown in the framing of these photos. And, surrounding this altar are dozens of other images of the dead being honored.

Angels and skeletons but not much food

Here are some of the photos and other items displayed on and around the Community dia de Los Muertos altar, starting with a full view of the offrenda shown at the top of this page. There are so many interesting details on this altar: the two skeletons hanging on the sides, the two angels kneeling at the bottom, the panda in a box, the white balloons with skulls painted on them and, of course, the photos of the family members who have passed away.

I’ve taken dozens of photos of Day of the Dead celebrations in Los Angeles where Molina (Grand) Park in downtown L.A. always has a huge display of altars, commissioned from individuals by the city government. These altars almost always include favorite foods and hobbies of the dead being honored: lots of bottles of liquor and beers as well as popular snacks like fiery Cheetos and cars –lots of cars. I’ve not seen much of that here in Tucson. In Oaxaca which is famous for it Dia de Los Muertos celebration, families bringing food for the dead is second only to cleaning the graves.

One altar here in Tucson had remnants of what appeared to be cookies and Mexican pastries. Since these altars have now been up for over two weeks most of the cookies have vanished. Most of the traditional marigold flowers are faded and dying, too.

And here are some other parts of the Community Altar I noticed:

After taking these photos I wandered through the MSA Annex and fell in love with Desierto Bookstore. I will be writing an updated post about Tucson bookstores soon,

After going to the MSA Annex, I went to Park Place Mall where there was also a big Dia de Los Muertos celebration. I’ll write about that in my next post. This is all for now.