How the Día de Muertos tradition continues, even after losing everything in the 7.1 quake in Mexico
How the Día de Muertos tradition continues, even after losing everything in the 7.1 quake in Mexico
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The concrete-floor home that Raul Osorio built for his family in this small town was one of his proudest achievements, the fruit of years of laboring in the United States.
It was also the place where the family gathered each fall to honor his wife, Aurea, who died of cancer in 1990. The family would construct an elaborate Day of the Dead altar for Aurea overflowing with fruit, sweet bread and a traditional shock of orange marigolds.
Her soul, according to pre-Hispanic custom, would visit during those sacred days, joining her husband and children for a meal of mole, beans and rice.
The tradition was threatened this year by the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that devastated a large swath of central Mexico last month. With its epicenter less than two dozen miles from Metepec, which is near the city of Puebla, the quake split the walls of the house, damaged the roof and left the staircase on the verge of collapse.
With a spray of red paint near the front door, government workers declared the home uninhabitable, forcing Osorio’s two sons, who lived in the house with their wives and children, to move in with relatives.
Residents of more than 200 other collapsed or badly damaged homes in Metepec were left in the same predicament. More than six weeks after the earthquake, many are homeless and living in makeshift shelters on the street.
Looming over Day of the Dead celebrations that kicked off here this week was a question: How does a community that has lost so much remember the dead?
“Even if we only had one glass of water and a small candle we would make an altar,” said Osorio, 74.
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