Film, exhibits, altars will honor Day of the Dead in North County

By: PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, October 26, 2005 1:09 PM PDT ∞

North County residents will honor their dearly departed this weekend at a series of Day of the Dead celebrations at local campuses, galleries and city centers.

Dia de los Muertos, traditionally celebrated in Mexico on Nov. 1 and 2, is a day when Mexicans honor the human spirit through remembering their ancestors by visiting the graveyards to clean up and decorate family headstones. In North County, Day of the Dead is celebrated in a series of educational exhibits and festivals that re-create the arts, crafts and memorial displays usually associated with Day of the Dead.

The region's largest event is MainStreet Oceanside's fifth annual Dia De Los Muertos Festival on Oct. 30, which is expected to draw as many as 5,000 people. The California Center for the Arts, Escondido, presents its 10th annual community altar installation hosted by Mexican artist Eloy Tarcisio beginning Tuesday, and other events and exhibits are planned throughout the county all weekend.

Many people mistakenly assume Day of the Dead is a pagan celebration because of its morbid imagery, but the event is actually rooted in the concept of death and rebirth and its historical roots stretch back more than 3,000 years, according to Carlos von Son, a Spanish, Latino literature and humanities professor at Cal State San Marcos, who is helping to organize Day of the Dead activities in San Marcos and Oceanside.

In the Mexican culture, Day of the Dead marks the one time of year when the souls of the deceased return to Earth briefly. Families mark the time with festivities and reunions. Altars, or ofrenda, are created as a place to leave the departed person's most treasured items, including photographs of the deceased, flowers, incense, favorite foods, mementos and candles. Also popular are decorated skulls made out of sugar and models of skeletons, often decorated or dressed with items that belonged to the deceased loved ones, von Son said.

For the past two years in Oceanside, von Son's theater troupe, Grupo de Teatro Dionisio, has put on a Spanish-language play about the history of the event. This year, von Son is taking his educational effort a step further with a preview of a new feature-length film based on Day of the Dead. The free screening of "Ofrenda Desnuda" ("Bare Offering") will be presented at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 28 in the Oceanside Library's community room at 300 N. Coast Highway. "Ofrenda Desnuda" was adapted for film from the original play script that von Son co-wrote three years ago with his brother, Guillermo, in Mexico. It is the story of a Mexican laborer whose plan to celebrate Dia de los Muertos in his new North County community brings unexpected consequences.

Von Son said he borrowed from his pension plan to produce the movie, which was filmed on high-grade videotape in locations around North County and northern Mexico over the past eight months. It stars members of his theater troupe and was filmed in Spanish with English subtitles. "Ofrenda Desnuda" will have its world premiere Nov. 16 at the New York Independent Video and Film festival. From there, von Son said he hopes he can shop it around to other film festivals worldwide and eventually attract a distributor.

Von Son described the plot of "Ofrenda Desnuda" as a metaphor for the Mexican diaspora and the efforts of Mexican immigrants to hold on to their cultural traditions in the United States. In the story, Pancho arrives in Tijuana from Central Mexico with the goal of crossing into the United States to find work. While in Tijuana, he sees locals celebrating Dia de los Muertos and it reminds him of his wife, who recently died during childbirth. A year later, and resettled in San Diego, Pancho decides to return to Mexico to retrieve the bones of his late wife so he can rebury them in San Diego and honor her grave each year on Dia de los Muertos. But Pancho's plan goes sour when he is arrested by the Border Patrol and deported. A week later, his wife's bones are discovered in an unmarked grave in San Diego and Pancho is suspected of murder.

After the movie at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28, von Son will lead a candlelight procession (accompanied by live music from a Mexican banda) across the street to Artists Alley at 212 N. Coast Highway, where there will be live music, folkloric dancing and free Mexican hot chocolate and pan de muerte (traditional festival bread) served at the the MainStreet Oceanside Phantom Gallery. The gallery is exhibiting Day of the Dead-themed photographs and artwork.

The Dia de los Muertos festival in Oceanside will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 30, with most events around Pier View Way, where 20 local Oaxacan families will build altars for lost loved ones and other altars will be built by local artists. Mellano & Company is donating more than 30,000 marigolds (the Aztecs' traditional flower of the dead) for use in the altar displays.

Visitors can watch the altars being built and can take part in their own remembrance at the chalk cemetery in Artist's Alley. Visitors will be given chalk, a candle and some flowers that they can use however they wish to decorate a section of the walkway in a loved one's honor. The alley will be decorated with papel picado (cut paper) designs, which are traditional Dia crafts in Mexico.

Live music and dancing will be presented all day on an outdoor stage at Coast Highway and Pier View Way. Performers include Barela, Mariachi Continental de San Diego, Ballet Folklorico de Oceanside, Los Vientos del Sur and Imagen Azteca. Food booths will serve tamales, carne asada tacos, sopes, tortas and other Mexican dishes. More than 40 artisans will sell Dia folk art, gifts, jewelry, decor and other items at booths along Pier View Way. A children's zone at Pier View at Ditmar Street will give children a chance to decorate their own sugar skulls, make paper crafts and play carnival games.

For those who want to learn more about the history of the holiday, von Son will offer a free lecture at 3 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Phantom Gallery.

Although the Oceanside Museum of Art at 704 Pier View Way won't be offering any special programs at the festival this year, it is exhibiting artwork by three Latino artists ---- Ruben Ochoa, Laura Alvarez and Perry Vasquez ---- in an exhibition about the Latino experience in the United States, "Borderless Dreams." It will be open for visitors from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 30. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for seniors, students and military.

For more information on festival events, call MainStreet Oceanside at (760) 967-2005 or visit www.msoceanside.com.