Dia de los Muertos a tribute to late family members

BROWNSVILLE — When Maria Elia Gonzalez was younger, her mother used to take her and her siblings to the graveyard every year in honor of Day of the Dead. Since her mother died 14 years ago, Gonzalez has continued the tradition and hopes to pass it on to her children, she said.

“Before (my mother) passed away, she was very concerned no one would come to bring flowers to her mom and her grandma; so I said I would continue the tradition and that is what I did,” said 74-year-old Gonzalez, who on Monday stopped by Brownsville’s Old City Cemetery to clean her grandparents’ grave.

In the Rio Grande Valley and along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Day of the Dead has long been overshadowed by the commercial holiday of Halloween, said Tony Zavaleta, vice president of external affairs for the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. But the tradition of honoring the dead dates back to more than 500 years ago, when Spanish conquistadors landed in Mexico, he said.

Spanish Catholic priests saw vast similarities between the native ritual and the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, which are celebrated to commemorate the saints and the spirits of the departed. The Day of the Dead was merged with Catholic theology in an effort to Christianize the indigenous population of Meso-America, Zavaleta said.

Today the Day of the Dead celebration is held in conjunction with the two Catholic holidays on Nov. 1 and 2.
“The belief is that during these days, the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest it will be in the entire year — so thin the dead are able to cross over,” Zavaleta said.

On these days, the dead walk among us, he said. That is why deeper south in Mexico, people make ofrendas, or offerings to the dead, by placing decorated sugar skulls, candy and altars on loved ones’ tombstones.

Some dress up as skeletons and dance in honor of the dead. And in some parts of Mexico, people camp out all night on the graveyard, said Anthony Knopp, professor emeritus of history at the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College.

The tradition along the border is not as extravagant as it is in central Mexico, where it originated. But there has been a recent revival of the ritual along the border in the last 15 years, Knopp said.

“It is an opportunity is to honor our ancestors,” he said.

Camilo Guerrero, like Gonzalez and others in the Valley, got up a little earlier this morning to make stops at the various cemeteries, where his dead loved ones have been laid to rest. Guerrero cleaned, painted and placed fresh flowers on his ancestors’ graves.

“We remember them,” Guerrero said. “Hopefully, some day someone remembers us.”

Jazmine Ulloa is a reporter for The Brownsville Herald.