Angelus News | October 25, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 36

Bishop David O’Connell leads a “Día de los Muertos” celebration at Calvary Cemetery in East LA Nov. 1, 2015.
In Mexico, and in the homes of
Mexican immigrants in Southern
California, the cultural traditions of
the Day of the Dead have always been
celebrated along with the religious.
“The celebration did take place in
the Church in parishes, prayer groups,
youth groups, and Latino families,
but there was no official archdiocesan
celebration before,” said Vega. “But
I remember that when I was in the
seminary in the 1990s here in Los
Angeles, we would be asked to bring
portraits of relatives and we would
make altars around All Souls’ Day.”
The altars are particular to the
Mexican celebration, but other Latin
American Catholics have their own
way of remembering the departed.
Wilmer Perez said that in Guatemala,
many attend Mass Nov. 2 and visit the
cemeteries where their loved ones are
buried.
Roberto Rodríguez, from El Salvador,
said that in his region of the
country people get together around
the tomb of the loved one to share a
meal he or she would have liked, and
to tell stories about that person.
Altars are not part of the traditions
of their respective countries, but both
Central American men, who live in
Los Angeles, participated this year in
building one.
Together with other Spanish-speaking
parishioners from St. Charles
Borromeo in North Hollywood, they
built an altar to remember the Central
American children who have died
crossing the desert into the United
States or while in federal detention.
The altar is one of more than 50 that
will be on display at Calvary Cemetery
Nov. 2 in East Los Angeles for the Day
of the Dead celebrations. In this case,
the altar tradition is used to depict
a painful reality, to educate other
community members, and to honor
the children, said Carlos Castillo, a
Guatemalan immigrant who is part of
a group of 15 faithful that created it.
In the lyrics of a “corrido” (a Mexican-style
narrative ballad) co-written
by Castillo and musician Prudencio
Perez (also from Guatemala), Castillo
prays for the children who have
died but also those in detention, and
expresses hope for immigration reform
“to keep these tragedies from happening.”
In this context, the celebration serves
as a collective prayer by immigrants
from several countries to address an
issue of interest to the community.
Sandra Martinez, a Mexican
immigrant who attends St. Charles
Borromeo Church, explained that she
has always seen this tradition as a mix
of the cultural and the religious. “It
is a combination of all the elements,”
she said during a recent interview at
Calvary.
12 • ANGELUS • October 25, 2019