LA OFRENDA: THE DAYS OF THE DEAD (Produced ... - Classweb

LA OFRENDA: THE DAYS OF THE DEAD
(Produced and directed by Lourdes Portillo and Susana Munoz. 50
minutes. Color. 1989. VHS Format. GMU Video GR 455.O44 1989)
(Calavera--skull--figurines. Film title)
(Woman wrapping head and walking from house to walled graveyard) People
pay long attention, marking sacredness of visit (cleaning the graves with
water, brooms) Lullabies about "the constant companion," death.
Octavio Paz: "In its celebrations, a culture steps outside time to
acknowledge enduring truths. Time is no longer a succession and becomes what
it was, the present in which the past and future are reconciled. In
celebrating death we step outside time and so transcend the eternal cycle of
life and death."
Before Spanish came, the festival was "The Feast of Death and Flowers"
and marked the transitory and flowering nature of life. Make path of orange
cempasúchil--”flowers of the dead”--from cemetary to house. (flowers in
markets, street views in markets)
Special food placed on altars, so dead can appreciate the aroma (buying
flowers in market; walking with live turkey)
Before Spanish, Indians celebrated death for a month. Los Dias De
Muertos, the Days of the Dead. When Spanish came, Indians added All Saints,
All Souls onto their month, celebrating both.
(sugar skull with name on it) "Playful reminder of that fearful end"

(woman making fire, plucking turkey, searing turkey in fire)
Dead return, share in everyday life of those who remember them. Family
lives not in anticipation, but in memory (family at table)
(woman puts picture on altar; altar with bread, calaveras, skeleton
bride and groom, candles; woman prays to dead husband, Heliodoro, to ask him
to ask God to let her live longer)
(night: people by graves, lighting candles, music plays in background,
putting cross on grave with orange flower petals)
Sin and hell were alien to Indians. Way one dies, not way one lived,
determined where one went. If dies natural, went to underworld, entered
through tunnel. Small dog went to help. After 4 years, souls went to final
resting place, Mitla "place of the dead." A place for all souls.
Native beliefs co-exist with Spanish beliefs.
(church) Here is entrance to heaven and hell. Man says he was told to
come in his dreams. The souls live in the ruins, not in the church.
(Skulls in carvings) To Indians, life and death were cycles of nature.
Life is destroyed to be reborn, to the ancients. "I carry in me the strength
and weight of a glorius past."
(Cortez and the conquest of Mexico) Cortez wrote about destroying the
Natives' religious places and their symbols of death. He put up images of the
saints. Mexico City was Cortez's capitol.
Late 1800s, artist Posada used calavera as icon of our dual existence.
Posada's engravings mocked the vanities of the living. (man giving political
speech in park, shows calaveras of the contemporary politicians)
(artist molding clay) A good creator was believed to be close to god in
ancient Mexico.
Maskmaker: made them from bad places in his dreams. Terrible animals,
made up of many animals.
(Large paper-mache skeletons playing instruments, man playing in
markets; skulls whose mouths move, people in coffins, skulls in dentist
chairs, calaveras.)
(Americans touring Mexico) USA man says it's a good idea. Woman: we
fear death, Indians didn't. Woman: when I talked about my husband who dies,
my uncles wouldn't listen, and people need to talk about it, it's
heartbreaking.
(man with horse carriage, woman washes hair outside, farm) To Indians,
universe was a wheel, a turning whole, eternal opposites like light and dark,
life and death.
(people making matachines, calaveras of singers who traveled around from
house to house) Skull is a likeness, a reality; the way they look, we'll all
end up looking.
(masked figures dressed as death, some with big breats,dancing with
coffin through village as people play instruments) People in Days of the Dead
celebration mock death and gender and whatever else needs a little push. We
remember the dead by celebrating life. In the disorder of festival, everyone
forgets self and enters into otherwise forbidden situations. Music and noise

are united not to recognize themselves, but to swallow each other up.
(maskers speak to one another, tease; wife asks doctor for help, he puts
banana between dead man's legs and takes it out; groups walking around masked
in daylight) Rigid society with rules of behvior. Can be free for a while.
(masked man dressed as widow) Always a woman dressed as widow in plays
of Days of the Dead. She's in mourning, people mock her because she kept
loving a man who was bad to her. And some widows are looking for new husband
at funeral.
Ofrenda to remember, to love death, because we'll all end up that way.
People give expecting nothing in return. The word offering means love and
love has no price. (women give gift of food from altar to visiting friends)
Masked widow: "This tradition will never end"
(procession of players, players enter a house)
(San Fran Bay Bridge; Posada calavera on mural, people getting faces
painted as skulls) Concha Sauceda: This is Day our ancestors visit. Day that
connects us to cultural past, helps us keep culture now that we're in another
culture. Acknowledgement that we share the same ancestors, no matter if died
yesterday or years ago.
(procession of floats) Changes in festival. Amalia Mesa-Bains:
Changes in festival from small community celebration remebering relatives and
friends, to one that includes people outside the Latino community. Western
culture doesn't give people a chance to think about death. With the altar,
you bring the person you love back. Death isn’t a closed chapter in a book.
Its power--it's a group process that makes all people stronger.
(altars, mobiles with calaveras) Celebrations are different than in
Mexico. Chicanos revise and adapt the tradition.
(woman lecturing in front of an altar) Bread decorated with tears.
Bigger candles for people more recently dies. Marigolds, odor of incense-together
they smell like bone. Our dead return, even if we are in another
country. They visit us wherever we are.
Amalia Mesa-Bains: Life and death are the core experiences. Art is
about healing.
(Man talks about making his altar for family, and for friends who've
dies of AIDS; Virgin of Guadelupe as a calavera) Friends with AIDS, friends
who died in car accidents years ago.
(Ms. Mesa-Bains talks) Death is almost an obscenity in USA culture. In
Days of the Dead, death is made loveable, joyful, humorous. That's why so
many outside of Latino community have joined in the celebration. (costumes,
parades)
(Woman at parade, in Spanish:) In Days of the Dead celebration, we are
united, all races. It's beautiful. For me that’s important.
(Calaveras; people looking at art exhibit of altars.) Concha Sauceda:
Culture heals. There are elements in all cultures that give health to the
people if they retain those elements. Particularly from Latinos, because
we've had to separate ourselves from our culture. And we're saying, return to
your culture for health.
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(altar at school) Days of the Dead altar dedicated to all the places
where children are dying in the world. Children brought toys for the
children, thinking that if they died, they'd need toys in heaven.
(child in skeleton outfit, kids at school, singing) Teacher: what would
you wish for yourself before you die, what would you wish for your friend
whose mother has just died? Children make their wishes about what they want
before they die--like have a reunion of all their friends.
Octavio Paz: "The word death is not pronounced in New York, in Paris,
in London, because it burns the lips. The Mexican, in contrast, is familiar
with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it; it is
one of his favorite toys and most steadfast love."
(people sitting in decorated graveyards, chidren in school with candles,
stone skeletons, getting faces painted as skulls, cleaning graves)
Locations: (thanks to people of Xoxocotlan)
Oaxaca
Mexico City
San Francisco, CA
Quotations from:
Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude
Carlos Fuentes, On the Run
Aztec poem, Ayocuan
________________________
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--Margaret R. Yocom,
May 1997
1. Why make sugar skulls with your name on them, or skull bride-andgrooms,
or skull musicians?
2. What makes an altar beautiful for its creators? What items are
important parts of an ofrenda? What activities happen at the altar? Do you
have something resembling an altar in your home?
3. What are some of the differences and differences in meaning between
Days of the Dead in Mexico and in the USA?
4. Why are some Anglos drawn to Mexican Days of the Dead?