Dia De Los Muertos

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# Of Performers: 16
Length of Work: 1 hour
Date Work Was Created: November, 2001
Choreographers: Gema Sandoval, Christie Rios
Premiered: November, 2001

Dia de los Muertos at the Local Cemetery

The similarity with which both the Spanish and the natives commemorated their dead made this date particularly susceptible to its perpetuation in the new world (altar offerings of favorite foods and flowers, processions to the grave sites with special prayers, songs and candles. During the 20th century, the celebrations throughout urban Mexico have made some of the symbols used for these festivities very common place-the sugar skulls, skeleton dioramas of everyday life, paper cuttings of skeletons and skulls. And, while regional differences are still in existence, we are most familiar with the urban lore of the "Día de los Muertos."

Mexicans living in the United States have brought with them these cultural traditions, with their regional, class, gender and historical differences. Over the past 35 to 40 years, primarily second and third generation Mexican-Americans living in the Southwest created a mass national movement of cultural regeneration, recuperation and reclamation. The result was that these traditions were given new meanings in diverse contexts. The calaveras became witty, mocking skulls who provided social commentary, the "ofrendas" (altars) became communal rather than family affairs. And the day of the dead has become a much stronger affirmation of life.