A Día de Los Muertos Flor y Canto y Calenda: Santa Barbara

 Melinda Palacio

*This column was first published in the Santa Barbara Independent on Thursday, October 26, 2023

During a day-long celebration of the Day of the dead, Santa Barbara came to life. The community celebration and Calenda was something the city of Santa Barbara had never experienced before. I am very grateful to have participated in the procession and in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s pre-Calenda activities. The Santa Barbara Museum of Art outdid itself with altars and activities for the whole family. Many people sported their flower crowns and decorated skull necklaces. The Día de los Muertos activities made for a colorful audience. While people waited in costume for the calenda, some dropped by to hear poetry and song in the galleries. 

 

I prepared a small altar in honor of my muertitos. The museum suggested three fifteen-minute sets of poetry and music. In hindsight this format would work better in longer sets. I was also dressed for the occasion and my flower and twig headdress made managing my microphone headset a challenge. 

 

The first set focused on poems from How Fire Is a Story, Waiting and the companion song I had written for the book. The first audience was made up in large part by a tour group. A few friends attended and it was so nice having familiar faces in the audience. The museum’s tall ceilings meant that sound became dispersed. I made a mental note to purchase a proper microphone and stand for situations where one was not available. 

 An hour later, I presented my second set, which consisted of poems from Bird Forgiveness and the theme song, written for guitar. The Bird Forgiveness theme song was based on a poem, “What the Birds Know,” about my time taking care of my grandmother during her last month of life. I have many poems and songs that honor my deceased loved ones. I also presented a tune that was born a song, Love Always Wins. This was a big breakthrough for me because I am fairly new to playing music and writing songs. I wrote my first song four years ago. I wrote Love Always Wins this past summer after a friend suddenly passed away. 

 

Some of my favorite poems have been assignments or requests. Many people ask me what is it I do as Poet Laureate and a large part of the Poet Laureate duties is to write poems for various occasions or institutions. I wrote an inaugural poem when I was installed as Poet Laureate at City Hall, a poem for the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, and, recently a poem for Perla Batalla, who asked if I wanted to read poetry during the musical interlude of her La Llorona set at the Margorie Luke Theater. I was thrilled because I’ve been a longtime fan of Perla Batalla and her music. She has gorgeous voice. Her version of the song La Llorona is a favorite. Reading the poem on stage with her and her band and daughter was a dream. 

 

My third set for the Día de los Muertos celebration was my La Lllorona set. I read the poem that I had written for Perla and played the companion song that composed. In the mythology of La Llorona, she is a woman who wanders and hollers in search of her children. There are different stories, in one of the more popular stories, La Llorona (she who cries) drowns her children because her lover does not want them. In my poem, La Llorona is tasked with helping the children who have crossed the border and who are alone. She is redeemed. I was humbled to be able to share this poem and song as part of the Santa Barbra Museum of Art’s Día de los Muertos celebration. By the third set, the audience was filled with people in costume, faces painted, everyone was ready for the Calenda procession to paseo nuevo and the Museum of Contemporary Art for the final stop with tamales and aguas frescas. 

 

 

 

Last Words to La Llorona

Melinda Palacio

 

 

 

The poet’s coffin is made of books.

She said, bury me with my books, 

Send me down the Rio Grande.

Even La Llorona needs to read. 

Llorona, I dedicate this poem to you.

Read these pages before my coffin sinks into mud.

 

If the ink should bleed onto pebbles at the bottom

of the river, do not worry.

I have memorized them all. I will sing to you.

But please, cover me, for I grow colder.

 

I know where you went wrong, Llorona. 

You are here and this is my last flor y canto.

On the river we will float on a song. 

My last dying wish: Protect the Children at the Border.

 

Children have left their homes with nothing

But a name and a flower embroidered on their sleeves.

Llorona, redeem yourself, redeem them, redeem me.

Aye de mi Llorona, ayudales. Save the children. 

 

 

La Respuesta / La Llorona’s Response

Melinda Palacio

 

 

 

I have come to take your hand, child.

Don’t think you’re in a stranger’s land.

Don’t you know I’ve always been here

You belong here too.

 

First, they came for the children

Then they came for the land

Built a wall so high, crushed butterflies

To a fine pulp, their royal wings discarded.

 

When I met the Devil, 

his cloven hooves wanted to dance.

I knew better. I will not lose again.

My children died in this river.

I will escort you out of this hell. 

What they say is a lie.

He alone has jailed the children.

All at the border.

 

Día de los Muertos

By Hannah Eliot

Illustrated by Jorge Gutierrez

• Age Range: 2 - 4 years
• Grade Level: Preschool and up
• Series: Celebrate the World
• Board book: 24 pages
• Publisher: Little Simon; Brdbk edition
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1534415157
• ISBN-13: 978-1534415157

Learn all about the traditions of Día de los Muertos with this second book in the brand-new board book series Celebrate the World, which highlights special occasions and holidays across the globe.

At the end of October each year, it’s time to celebrate an ancient tradition: ¡Día de los Muertos! With vibrant illustrations by Golden Globe–winning Mexican illustrator Jorge Gutierrez, this festive board book teaches that Día de los Muertos honors ancestors and loved ones who have passed. From sugar skulls to papel picado, this is a holiday that truly commemorates the cycle of life.

More Books About Día de los Muertos

La Catrina: Emotions/Emociones 

Written by Patty Rodriguez

Illustrated by Ariana Stein

Inspired by one of the most recognized symbols of Dia De Muertos or Day of the Dead, a holiday that celebrates life and remembers the dearly departed, this book will introduce little ones to emotional expressions and their first English and Spanish words.

Las almas de la fiesta y otros cuentos de Día de Muertos

Written by Judy Goldman

Illustrated by Israel Barrón

In this beautifully illustrated collection of Día de Muertos stories, Judy Goldman explores the cultural traditions rooted in honoring the dead throughout different Mexican cities. Each story includes a thoughtful section explaining the tradition portrayed in the tale. 

Día de Los Muertos 

Written by Roseanne Greenfield Thong

Illustrated by Carles Ballesteros

It’s Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and children throughout the pueblo, or town, are getting ready to celebrate! They decorate with colored streamers, calaveras, or sugar skulls, and pan de muertos, or bread of the dead. There are altars draped in cloth and covered in marigolds and twinkling candles. Music fills the streets. Join the fun and festivities, learn about a different cultural tradition, and brush up on your Spanish vocabulary, as the town honors their dearly departed in a traditional, time-honored style.

The Remembering Day/El día de los muertos

Written by Pat Mora

Illustrated by Robert Casilla

Long, long, long ago, Bella and her grandmother Mamá Alma admired their vegetable garden. They liked gardening together. They grew sunflowers and lilies too, and chatted with lizards and hummingbirds. They walked around the flowers and vegetables holding hands, something they had done frequently since Bella was a baby. As her grandmother aged, Bella helped her to walk. “Every year, I need your help more and more,” said Mamá Alma.

In this special bilingual picture book for children, author Pat Mora creates an origin myth in which she imagines how the Mexican custom of remembering deceased loved ones—El día de los muertosor the Day of the Dead—came to be. With tender illustrations by Robert Casilla that depict Bella and Mamá Alma’s loving relationship, this book will encourage children to honor loved ones, whether by writing stories and poems or creating their own remembering place.

Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras 

Written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh

Funny Bones tells the story of how the amusing calaveras—skeletons performing various everyday or festive activities—came to be. They are the creation of Mexican artist José Guadalupe (Lupe) Posada (1852–1913). In a country that was not known for freedom of speech, he first drew political cartoons, much to the amusement of the local population but not the politicians. He continued to draw cartoons throughout much of his life, but he is best known today for his calavera drawings. They have become synonymous with Mexico’s Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival. Juxtaposing his own art with that of Lupe’s, author Duncan Tonatiuh brings to light the remarkable life and work of a man whose art is beloved by many but whose name has remained in obscurity.

Calaveras for Coachella • Veterans Job Fair • El Sereno Street Festival • Sci-Fi Anthology

Michael Sedano

It’s that time of year when cultura shows. Gente paint their faces to resemble skulls, erect spectacular memorial altars, hold processions, art shows, and craft sales to honor our dead. It's Dia de los Muertos and calacas rule the day.

Calaca cultura captures artist imaginations to create particularly gratifying art and collectibles. It's a time turn-of-the-20th-century artist Jose Guadalupe Posada's popularity increases with countless tributes to Posada's style. In classrooms, activities remind kids the calaca motif in Mexican art antedates European incursion.

Calavera frieze recreates Templo Mayor wall, Museo Nacional de la Antropologia

Calaca glitz sparkles across the US Southwest, Dia de Los Muertos splashes cultura across local news with an array of entrepreneurs hosting events from humble sidewalk congregations to this-year-better-than-last-year extravaganzas at cemeteries and concert grounds.

One elegantly cool small show was the Crewest/Gregg Stone annual calaca show. Stone donated ceramic skulls for emerging and established artists. They painted and elaborated the small skulls then exhibited in Crewest’s annual Top of the Dome shows. Be sure to click the link.  I collected several over the years. Sadly, Crewest gallery closed its doors and the annual shows with them.

The idea of decorated skulls rekindled this year in the form of giant papier mache skulls destined for Dia de los Muertos USA, a Coachella Valley DDLM extravaganza making its premiere event. I’ve found the skull I’d love to add to my collection, it’s shown in process in the video below, Margaret Garcia's tiled skull.



Margaret Garcia invited La Bloga to have a look as she, volunteer Bonnie Lambert, and two apprentices, put the finishing touches on the massive beauty headed to the Imperial Valley city of Coachella. The truck is due in a few days so she's on deadline.

Garcia's assembled a professional crew. Artist Bonnie Lambert volunteers her work and has been a key part of the team from its earliest hour. Be sure to visit Bonnie's gallery at this link.

 A pair of apprentices join the team with masonry and tile experience. Monumental scale art projects like Margaret Garcia's tiled calavera skull are job creators.

 In a project imagined by producer Rodri Rodriguez and Art Director Juan Rodriguez, artists were offered a papier mache skull to paint and decorate. Garcia told them she was happy to have the massive object but would not paint it. She saw the skull covered in tile. She also smothered it with love, as in labor of. And seeing this wonder, who wouldn't want to own it?

Over the past weeks, Garcia has been documenting her process on Facebook. Videos illustrate how she covers the papier mache with successive layers of fiberglass fabric. The crew trowels Portland cement across each curve and contours it by hand. Final layers brush on cement slurry for a smooth finish of its concrete skin that's the substrate for the tile.

Garcia buys tile shards, decorative beads, ceramic figures, adding her own found pieces. She lays cement mixture across the skull, section by section, sinking shards into place.

Walking around the creation finds a corazón surrounding a woman and man at dawn, setting out on a journey. Her blue shawl evokes Lupe, the curlicue at their feet at once suggest the black moon of tradition and a Mexica glyph, perhaps flor y canto symbols since flowers abound behind the couple.

Treating the eye at a wider scope, Garcia outlines the valentine heart in green shards with a tessellated lotus blossom pattern. The tight regularity of that pattern is hypnotic against the randomness inside the corazón. Other places geometry is irrelevant to pleasing gatherings of intensely bright colors and ceramic motifs.

A sirena floats quietly above an eyebrow. A gecko rises from a lobe. Eye concavities sparkle with blue beads in raggedly concentric circles.

With tile layed in place, the crew mixes grout into a stiff but pliant mixture. Owing to the irregular joints and surfaces, grouting is done by hand. Press the ball of putty onto the surface then work it tightly against both sides of the gap until the surface is tile, then a black line, then tile; no gaps, few exposed edges.

I arrive as the work takes on an extra laboriousness. The team is scraping away with razor blades,  the task complicated by irregularities and the importance of avoiding scratches and gouges.

Margaret uses a Dremel tool’s abrasive bit to raise clouds of black dust. She works with artist’s precision, getting mostly grout and not clamshelling her ceramics nor dulling their shine. Garcia is due for a break so we go for ceviche.

Someone changed the grouting plan, Garcia reveals, getting it done instead of getting it done right. Grout that smears across its boundary needs to disappear, that's expected. Working to plan would have made the touch-up far less laborious. No one complains, they find the blade's preferred angle and scrape scrape scrape away the sandy black grit. The whole crew knows someone messed up. So it goes.

The crew is happy for the botana we bring for their lunch.

Excess grout gone, the tile gleams with appreciation.

The skull is a labor of love and explosion of creativity. Garcia's muse, Rhett Beavers, arrives from a landscaping task to scrape for a while.

Margaret Garcia's tiled calavera skull is a marvel of sculpture and cultura that belongs in the Norton Simon or my yard. I’m sure I cannot afford it, but I do have the perfect spot for it.



My Calaveras


One of my DDLM treasures is the chuparrosa skull, a gift from Gregg Stone. It's extremely fragile, as witnessed by the lost wing tip on the right of the foto. Lástima. Please do not touch.

Chuparrosa skull by Gregg Stone. 

Mexico City’s Zona Rosa struggles to awaken with the first stirrings of sanitation crews cleaning up after Saturday night’s raucous club-goers scattered McDonald’s bags and other trash on every available horizontal surface. I heard them from my window last night. By habit, I'm up early and heading out to walk las calles.

I aim for the antiques market where there’s usually a Sunday patio sale. I’m in luck.

The sleepy kid is probably a college student. Half-shaven, he's laid out his wares on a shabby blanket. Glass, china saucers, rusty hardware, assorted detritus of estate sales and a packrat eye for junk. I spot an expertly-hewn sandstone gargoyle. He knows its value but offers a discount. I'm not prepared to spend a hundred fifty bucks so I turn to his books. I scan the spines noting lots of Mexican history, some mass market art books, and a thin folded spine. I pull out a grey cardboard pamphlet and it’s a treasure. Posada.

In 1952 the Mexican Typographers Union struck a small collection of Calaveras and calaverones from Posada’s zinc plates. Printed on aging tissue paper they're impossible to display and eventually will be eaten by the paper. But at forty dollars the portfolio of eight letter-size sheets are one of those strokes of good fortune that happen to others.

Calaveron detail

Calaverititas, size of a nickel coin

Last Day for L.A. Veterans to Register for Jobs Fair

Today is the final day for Veterans in the Southern California region to enroll to participate in the inaugural "10,000 Strong" Hiring Event. This will be a reverse hiring fair featuring a coalition of partners led from the Mayor's office.

A reverse hiring fair is when pre-screened, veteran applicants attend the 10,000 Strong Hiring Event and are interviewed on site with employers who are currently looking to fill positions for their companies. Pre-screening allows for the best possible match between a veteran and a job opportunity.

Every veteran who enrolls by October 28th will be assigned an employment specialist who will help them prepare for the event and for future job searches if this event fails to match a Veteran's abilities to an available job.

The 9-5 interviewing event gets rolling November 5th 2014 at Goodwill Industries' Community Enrichment Center at 3150 N San Fernando Rd. Los Angeles, CA 90065.

Veteran Job Seekers must enroll by October 28th to receive assistance with resume and interview preparation. No Veteran will be turned away.


El Sereno DDLM in Fifth Year

That Coachella affair that Margaret Garcia's skull is in looks like a magnificent experience. For gente who cannot make the road trip past Palm Springs, Los Angeles' El Sereno takes a namesake approach to the celebration with a street festival now in its quinto iteration.

Artists, poetry, art, crafts, local businesses like Connie Castro from Hecho En Mexico restaurant will be on hand to greet and welcome locals and travelers from ancient lands.

Giving & Taking
Maximize Your Crowdfunding

It’s such a sound strategy, crowdfunding, that it’s a growth sector of the information industry. Google the term. Anyone with a computer can create a crowdfunding pitch, and a montón of them have.

Using homophily as the basis for asking strangers to give you money is a potent tactic. Who hasn’t received those emails? Lately there's been an upswell supporting an important book that Big Publishing won’t touch, the Latino/a Rising anthology. The editor is soliciting submissions and contributions. If the submissions are worthy, and the money sufficient, the book gets published.

Crowdfunding works. Thousands of people have asked for and gotten millions of dollars from generous publics. Crowdfunding works for the credit card companies, too. Amazon Payments, for example, charges 2.9% plus thirty cents, to collect money for a crowd sourcer. In other words, if you give ten dollars to the project, fifty-nine cents goes into Amazon’s pocket and your causa receives $9.41

Call me a cheapskate. OK, that hurt. But I’m not giving money to Amazon or Paypal or some other card processor. That’s why crowdfunders need to include a mailing address in their pitches. A mailed-in check comes with no hidden processing fees, so when you give that ten dollars, ten dollars goes to the project.

There is a difference. A crowdfund is a pledge, not a donation. If the plea reaches deaf ears, no money goes out of your card to the project. With a check, you've given the money, no-strings attached. The project is at liberty to return your check or not. But then, that's what giving looks like, a one-way money flow.

So I’m offering a mailing address so you can support the Latino/a Rising project to publish a speculative fiction anthology that would introduce a broad cross-section of raza writers to the huge worldwide audience for sci-fi and related genre literature.

Mail your check to support Latino/a Rising to: Matthew David Goodwin, 246 Ardmore Ave., Apt. C, Upper Darby, PA 19082


Yodoquinsi in Late-breaking News from Oxnard

Remember this is a unique opportunity to hear prehispanic instrumental group Yodoquinsi.

October 31 2014
5:00 o'clock pm
Downtown Sol
328 W 3rd St , Oxnard , CA 93030
(805) 240-7765

This is the first time that Yodoquinsi has come directly from Mexico. It's a rare opportunity to see and hear a live full range of pre -Columbian instruments.

Thanks to the support and hard work of the Mexican Consulate in Oxnard, Downtown Sol, in coordination with Ollinkalli Cultural Arts Center is able to share this concert with the Ventura County community.

For more information or to reserve your seat contact Downtown Sol or Yenelli Law

SPACE IS LIMITED !

Yenelli Law
Ollinkalli Cultural Arts Center
805 901 6171