Celebrating Día de los Muertos in Portland

IdeAL PDX, a Latin American artist collective, collaborated with businesses in Portland’s Central Eastside to install Día de los Muertos altars. Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a Mexican tradition that is now celebrated globally. The holiday honors and celebrates loved ones who have died. We hear more about the altars from Jessica Lagunas, the creative director of IdeAL PDX and a lead artist who worked on the altars.

This transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: With Halloween behind us, Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead is now upon us. It’s a Mexican holiday based on indigenous and catholic traditions that’s now celebrated globally and despite the name it’s not just one day but a series of days encouraging us to honor and remember loved ones who have died. This year a Latin American artist collective called IdeAL PDX, collaborated with businesses in Portland’s Central Eastside. They installed the  Día de los Muertos altars that the public can view. Jessica Lagunas is the creative director of IdeAL PDX, and the lead artist who worked on some of the altars. She joins us now. Welcome to Think Out Loud.

Jessica Lagunas: Thank you for having me and thank you for the invitation.

Miller: What does Día de los Muertos mean to you on any given year?

Lagunas: Every year it is different but this is a tradition that I used to celebrate with my family since I was a child. I remember going to my grandma’s house and seeing all these altars which as a kid, you don’t know everything that it means. Did you see grandma putting the altar for grandpa? And that’s pretty much it. As a kid, you just steal the candy or find any fruit that is there. So growing up and moving to Portland, every year I’ve been here I’ve been trying to contribute to make this celebration richer, wider and bigger.

Miller: How did this particular project come to be a bunch of altars set up in various businesses in Portland’s Eastside?

Lagunas:  I’ve been active in the Eastside since 2010 in collaboration with Teatro Milagro and for years I have been in charge of setting the altars for Teatro Milagro and also for Cargo store. But two years ago they started talking with businesses around the Eastside so they all can come with the reactivation which we need in Southeast Portland. So they came up with this idea of doing something--some kind of a band--to bring people together on the Eastside. So Theatro Milagro along with the East Central Portland Green Loop, Bike Portland and the IdeAL PDX, which I’m the creative director of--they came up with the idea of the bike tour and the alters. So Theatro Milagros’s Dañel Malán, the director of the theater, invited me to put together the altars. So when I heard it was going to be 12 altars instead of two this year, I was like, no way I cannot deal with 12 altars myself. So me and Yathzi Turcut as lead artists of IdeAL PDX invited other crafters from the community that we know. And that’s how we all started working at the beginning of October to put these together. The businesses donated spaces. Some of them donated bigger spaces and some of them donated decent spaces for us to showcase the alters.

Miller: Can you describe the two altars that you worked on personally?

Lagunas: Yes. Well my creations were at Cargo. They still are going to be there until the end of November, I think.  One is at Cargo Inc Store and the other one is at Milagro. Both have different intentions. The one at Milagro I am dedicated to the Mariposa Monarcas.

Miller: The monarch butterfly?

Lagunas:  The monarch butterfly, yeah.

Miller: Why? What’s the symbolic connection between that butterfly and these offerings?

Lagunas: Well, since you said at the beginning, you know the other altars are a representation of the Indigenous and the Christianity that we have in Mexico. And I identify myself as Mestiza and I’m proud to know my Indigenous side very well and I honor my Indigenous side and I also honor my European Spanish side. So the Mariposa Monarca, the symbology that it has, comes from the Purépechas and the Mazahuas, two of the Indigenous communities that are right now some of the biggest in Mexico. We have a lot of legends and one of the most beautiful legends in Mexico is about the butterflies arriving in Mexico to announce that the dead, or the souls of the dead, are coming and then they carry them in their wings. They carried them with them to send through the sound of the wings. They bring the messages to their families. So this is something that I was really connected to this year because before, you know, I’d see the Mariposa Monarcas and I knew the symbology but my connection with the colors and living in Portland, knowing about how they have to travel all the way from Canada and the United States to Mexico, it’s a large procession.

Miller: My understanding is that the altars you created, among other things, that they are

meant to celebrate and honor your grandmothers. I’m curious what it’s like to have these personal altars that the public can see as opposed to putting them up in your own house.

Lagunas: Well, they exist in my house and like I said, I personally do my own rituals and traditions and sharing them with the community doesn’t mean that they are for the community. They are for the community, but they also reflect my work.

Miller: And they can do both things at once--be personal, but also be out there for people to see?

Lagunas: Exactly and I include my grandmas because it’s part of me and then part of what I am and who I am. I thank them for that.

Miller: We have about a minute left but I’m curious what kinds of reactions you’ve seen from passersby or people going into the various shops.

Lagunas: Well, on Saturday we had the bike tour and everybody started at the Milagro and there was a lot of curiosity about what does it mean? Why? And I see more and more respect about what the  Día de los Muertos truly is and the tradition. I can see the Día de los Muertos in two different ways: The cultural aspect with the folklore and the culture is for everyone. The other  Día de los Muertos could be the art. It could be the folklore that is behind the Calavera’s and the Katrina’s and everything that it portrays. And then the other aspect is the tradition that we carry the rituals and what we believe this truly is. So the altar at Milagro was for trading the monarch butterflies and the story and then the one that I made up Cargo which is a huge altar, that one is really big, that one I wanted to bring what it feels like to be in Mexico and I’m glad.

Miller: Jessica Lagunas, I’m so sorry but we are out of time but thanks so much for joining us today and talking to us about this project. I really appreciate it.

Lagunas:  Okay.

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