Fruitvale gears up for annual Día de los Muertos celebration: ‘It is a very important holiday for us, where we honor our ancestors.’

In a nook between the parish offices and the sanctuary, with its pearly white walls and stained glass windows, a line of worshippers has come to St. Elizabeth church in Fruitvale looking for answers to the unexpected and unexplainable. 

A woman, her son by her side, is weeping, hyperventilating, her head tilted down as she stands before the still figure of La Virgen de Guadalupe, or the Virgin Mary. Behind her, another woman waits patiently for her turn to feel the altar’s motherly warmth. On Nov. 2, many people of Hispanic origins join in collective mourning and honoring of loved ones in front of altars, and alongside family and friends. Día de los Muertos is a holiday which, like many of its observers, has transcended borders and is alive and thriving here in Oakland.

This weekend,  many people of Hispanic heritage are confronting and celebrating something natural and inevitable, a fact of life that doesn’t discriminate between young or old, rich or poor, educated or not, healthy or sick: We will all eventually die. Días de los Muertos is a way to face death without fear. 

On Sunday, Fruitvale will celebrate the 29th annual Día de los Muertos Festival with live music, altar exhibits, and many food and art vendors.

“Everyone in Fruitvale benefits from the festival,” said Nalleli Albarran-Cruz, senior manager of senior wellness at the Unity Council, the nonprofit that has organized the event since 1996.

Those who join in the festivities will enjoy the warm feeling of gathering with loved ones to remember the people who shaped their lives. It may seem like a strange concept: How and why do people celebrate something as painful as death?

Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a Mesoamerican ancestral celebration and explanation of death. It is believed that on Day of the Dead, the deceased travel back to the world of the living, where they are received by family members who bring them food, drinks, and flowers. In Mexico, the holiday is widely celebrated and varies from region to region, but for the most part, the central activity is the same: a family gathering at the gravesites or at home altars dedicated to loved ones, stacked with offerings left to honor them.

Fruitvale is the epicenter of Oakland’s Hispanic population, with more than half of its residents identifying as Latino. On Sunday, this neighborhood will attract thousands of people to its annual celebration. 

Día de los Muertos Festival
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: International Boulevard and Fruitvale Avenue
Cost: Free, public transit encouraged
What else: Food, vendors, music, activities, ofrendas on display
More information: Unity Council website

Sandra Castellanos López, from the Mexican state that surrounds Mexico City, has owned and operated Los Mexicanos Bakery 2 on Fruitvale Avenue for the last 35 years. She stood on a stool behind a counter in her small bakery, the air filled with the pleasant aroma of sweet bread.

Castellanos López could not recall mourning many people close to her as a child in Mexico, yet her memories of celebrating Día de los Muertos are vivid. “It was a big deal,” she said. “People would go to the cemetery and clean their loved ones’ tombs; they would bring them mole and drinking water.” 

Stepping down from the stool, Castellanos López came around the counter and gestured to an altar at the front of the store. The altar, called an ofrenda, was full of bright yellow marigold flowers, a glass of water, and a cup of salt. Castellanos López didn’t start celebrating Day of the Dead until her brother passed away and its deep meaning became clear to her. “You have to put the things that they liked,” she said. “My dad liked to drink alcohol, and some may not like it, but they’re visiting us and we have to put what they like. That’s why I put a Coca-Cola on my brother’s altar.”

Death is not something to be feared, Castellanos López explained, and is often a relief from pain. “As soon as we are born there is only one known thing, death,” she said. “I tell my kids when I’m gone don’t cry, because I’ll be at peace.”

Mauricio Villas, from the Mexican state of Michoacán, has worked at Tony Rossi & Sons Florists in Fruitvale for the last 29 years. Villas came to the U.S. when he was 10 years old, and stopped celebrating Day of the Dead until he started a family. The difference between Day of the Dead in Mexico and in the U.S., Villas said, is that in his homeland the holiday is ubiquitous. “Everybody does it, and over here not everyone knows what’s going on.” 

In his hometown, the holiday was so woven into the fabric of life that everyone understood the traditions. Now, he said, he worries about people trying to profit off the holiday. “Money is the last thing you would think of on Día de los Muertos. The first is to honor your ancestors and the second is to share with others.” 

The Day of the Dead festivities in Fruitvale are beautiful, he explained, because they teach others about a beautiful tradition of Mexico. “I see a lot of outsiders participate, which is fine, as long as they do it with respect, because it is a very important holiday for us, where we honor our ancestors.”

(Top photo: Día de los Muertos altar inside Tony Rossi & Sons Florists in Fruitvale, by Jose Velazquez)

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