Tucson's Day of the Dead

Tucson, Arizona is close to the Mexican border, and never more so than on el Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead. The Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 1 and 2, and according to this Wikipedia article, can be traced to an indigenous, pre-Hispanic festival in Mexico. Skulls were kept to symbolize death and rebirth. Now skulls and skeletons are everywhere as symbols of the holiday.

The Day of the Dead is an occasion to honor and remember family members and friends who have passed away. Maybe even to encourage their spirits to visit the living and hear the prayers we offer for them. And, like many things in Mexico, the holiday has evolved to include a bit of humor. The traditions and activities are different from town to town even within Mexico. And they have danced right across the border into Arizona, where Tucson has developed its own traditions and activities.

The University of Arizona hosted an author reading by Luis Urrea. His "Hummingbird's Daughter" is one of my all time favorite books, so I had to go. Here's my review of it in Goodreads.



  The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's not quite magic surrealism, because the events are more concrete and reality-based than that. The narration is quietly hilarious. The tone, the events, the characters all beautifully capture the feeling of how magical Mexico is.



Hmmm...I think the correct term is "magic realism." Oh, well. And bonus, because it was all part of a Day of the Dead celebration, we also got mariachi music and Mexican folk dances and pan muerto, a sweet bread. They promised Mexican hot chocolate, but I'm not sure if it really counted, because it was a thermos of hot water with packets of instant Swiss Miss hot chocolate.

The mariachis were little! They were Las Aguilitas de Davis, from Davis Elementary School,  with musicians from grades 1-5. The music was quite good. And the kids were really cute in their charro suits and skeleton makeup.

The high cuteness factor makes Las Aguilitas a hard act to follow. But the university's Grupo Folklorico Miztontli held their own with beautiful Mexican folk dances, also performed in skeleton makeup.

And then we all followed the performers in a mini-procession from the basement of the bookstore to the auditorium in the Student Union Building, where Luis Urrea read to us. But really, he told us a story. I saw him holding the book and glancing at it for the words, but he performed it for us in such a way that the whole audience was transported to the home of the old woman and her family who babysat him as a little boy while his father was at work. Beautiful! I hate to admit this, but I'm not positive which book he was reading from--I missed that part talking to my friends right at the start! But I think it was, "Nobody's Son: Notes from an American Life." And in any case, I am definitely planning to read more of Luis Urrea's work.

The next procession was more arduous. My friends Sue and Alice and I joined the pilgrimage from St. John's Church in South Tucson to San Xavier Mission, a walk of eight miles.

St. John's Church

We walked the eight miles to honor the lives of those people who lost their lives along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona in the past year.

179 crosses, one for each of the people who passed away. If the person was identified, his or her name was written on the cross. Many bodies were not identified, and their crosses were labeled "Desconocido", or "Unknown."

We gathered behind the church and the organizers told us some rules about crossing streets and made some promises about breaks and snacks and water along the way. Then they talked about all those desconocidos, who had been found alone in the desert and not identified, and that most likely their families don't know what has happened to them. We would honor them and bear witness that they had passed through this life by carrying a cross for each of them and thoughts of each of them on this procession.

 

 Lining up...

 ...lining up...

 ...and we're off!

Here we're passing out of Tucson and onto the Tohono O'Odham reservation.

About four or five miles in, Alice (above, in white hat and purple shirt) and I were trying to remember why we were doing this. It was hot, and the scenery we passed through was not as pleasant as our usual hiking excursions. But Sue (in blue) never wavered. 

 Along the way, we passed this altar for a deceased loved one.

 Our final rest stop. Notice the bottles of pain relievers there in front of the fruit and pretzels! Some good planning by the organizers!

And we could just see San Xavier Mission, only about a half mile away now. It's those white rounded towers poking up at mid-horizon. Yay! We're getting closer.

When we reached the mission, crosses from the previous several years were already laid out in this circle. As I walked up, it hit me hard that each of those was a person who was lost. And then I remembered what I was doing there.

Several people took turns reading the names of those whose crosses we had carried with us, including desconocido. As each was read, the person holding that cross placed it at the edge of the circle.

 One of the mission priests offered a blessing...

 ...and we were done.

 An altar set up by the mission priests.

That's me, Sue, and Alice hoping we can get a ride back to Tucson....which we did, thanks to Sue's persistence!

The event Tucson is most known for is the huge All Souls' Procession through downtown. I'd say this is also the event that most incorporates that Mexican humor. The procession started in 1990, when Tucson artist Susan Johnson was grieving the passing of her father. Inspired by Mexico's Day of the Dead celebrations, she offered a performance to honor his memory. Other local artists liked it, and the celebration grew into Tucson's All Souls Procession. This year, organizers estimated 35,000 participants paraded over two miles through downtown.

I headed to the parade route with Sue and Alice and Tami (who lives only two blocks from the route and let us park in her apartment complex--score!) to bask in all the craziness. While, of course, offering our respects to the dead. And here is just some of what we saw in the dark of downtown Tucson on All Souls' Day....

 Waiting with the kids for the parade to start.

 An altar on a wagon to pull in the procession. They had photos of family and friends lost over the last several years taped to the outside and the Virgin Mary on the inside.

 Last-minute adjustments to the costumes.

OK...all of this and the procession has not even started yet!

Tami and I always get distracted by blinking plastic novelty items for sale at public events. So we ended up with these flashing hair bows. Or maybe they're butterflies? Anyway, they were really helpful for finding each other in the huge crowd in the dark. Also notice my cool necklace of skulls (I know, it's too little to see. Trust me, it's cool!)

The procession ended with the burning of a large urn filled with slips of paper carrying hopes, offerings, and wishes for those who have passed.

It started with a model of the urn...

  ...and strolling attendants in silver offering paper and pencil and collecting notes to burn later. I offered the names of two older ladies from my church who passed away this year and whom I've been missing. Both of them would have delighted in a night like this!

 A rolling altar in the form of a sailboat made of bones. My interpretation? The lady in the picture loved to sail and she died this year, and these are her children and they're missing her.

 A whole group in "house dresses" and pink bob-style wigs carrying large pictures of the family matron. Or maybe it was all for Celia Cruz? She had a pink wig like that.

 Good-bye to Neil Armstrong. I didn't capture it in a picture, but the astronauts had skeleton faces inside their helmets.

 Some bereaved pet owners commemorated their lost animals. Here, a dog.

 Speckles, the pet bunny.

 Maybe this cowboy lost his favorite horse this year. He built quite the contraption.

OK, and some people just made interesting stuff and marched in the parade.  Unless this girl really had a pet jelly fish.

 And some environmental politics--save the jaguar.

 And lots of Mexican-style skeletons and spooks...

 Alice and I saw something funny...I don't remember what exactly...but it could have been almost anything!

 This is the Seven Pipers band. They had a sign saying, "129 Days Until St. Patrick's Day." It's the whole American melting pot thing.

And there was so much more than this. And I probably only saw a third of it in the dark with the huge crowd.

 

So let me just close by saying how much I love Tucson! And I am dressing up next year!

Oh, and we did have Halloween first, just like the rest of the U.S.!

Here's Tami on Halloween dressed as a really cool guy from the '70's. You can tell it's authentic because she looks just like Ben Affleck as a 1970's CIA agent in "Argo." Also by the fake chest hair. Blecch!

Mujeres con Huevos Going to Cabo

I love beach vacations. I love Mexico.

My last visit to Mexico was Christmas, 2009 when friends invited me to their beach house north of Vera Cruz. It was a great visit. I attended a quinceanara, toured ruins of an ancient city, took two all-night bus rides through areas now beset by drug violence, shared an early morning coffee on New Year's Day with a polite young cab driver, and was the only person crossing the border back into Brownsville, Texas at 6:30 am on New Year's Day, 2010.

 Quinceanara!

 A little cumbia.

 

 El Tajin archaeological site

 Misty corner in Xico, Mexico.

 Mujeres con Huevos. Women with Eggs--a women's egg-selling cooperative in Xico, Mexico. Of course, in Mexico, huevos is slang for testicles. So these egg-selling chicks are tough!

Mexico! How could you not love it? Well, there's that part about the drug violence. I, like many other Americans, have let myself get a little freaked out by all the bad news from Mexico. But many places in Mexico are still completely safe to visit. So I nagged my friend K until she agreed to go to Cabo San Lucas for a one-week beach vacation at a big resort. I will refer to her only as "K" because she says her mom (one of the Americans who is freaked out by news reports) is gonna be really mad when she finds out K's going to Mexico. "K" isn't even her real initial, so we're talking deep cover, here.

But now, two weeks after the start of vacation planning, and three weeks before departure, we are asking ourselves, "Is this vacation doomed?" You be the judge....

After we got ourselves all worked up over the idea of a beach vacation, I went to the internet to search for cheap holiday package deals. This isn't even really vacation planning. It's just a week at a hotel and a flight. In one of the busiest tourist places in North America.

I went to a website that offers deals to military families and government employees. I clicked on a link for "5 Days in Cabo for Only $499!!!" The link opened to a page with the name of a very nice resort on Medano Beach. I called the toll-free number to ask about adding extra days. The operator answered the phone with, "Welcome to our One-Day Vacation Sale." Seven days was still cheap.

I hung up and looked at online customer reviews of the resort. It was universally well reviewed, except for annoyance with time share salesmen. But, hey, that's a constant for Mexican beach vacations at nice resorts! We ended up booking a week at the super cheap price.

But the booker asked us a bunch of questions about our age, our income, and our employment and disclosed that the super cheap deal was a special promotion with the goal of selling timeshare weeks. One of us would be required to attend a 90-minute sales pitch our first morning at the resort. Still not all that unusual. I gave him my credit card number. He said I should be waiting for a call in the next 48 hours to confirm our vacation. He emailed me a "terms and conditions" document asking again about our ages and income, and stating that if we did not meet the age and income requirements the resort would add $150 a day to our cheap package deal.

Then he emailed a receipt. It wasn't actually from the well-reviewed resort. It was from one of those bundling companies that sells discount packages to many resorts.  Okay. Starting to feel a bit uneasy now. But, hey, I've endured so many time share sales pitches over the years that I still thought things were okay. Maybe the sales pitch would go longer than 90 minutes. We'd probably get a crap room with no view. But it was so cheap!

The next morning K called me from her office. (She still has to work. That's why the vacation can only be one week, exactly.) She was feeling uneasy. It sounded too good to be true. I realized I'd researched reviews for the resort, but not for the company we were actually dealing with. Their reviews were horrible! One told a tale of arriving at a resort with no reservation and not getting a room. A month later they were still hoping for a refund. Two told tales of horrible rooms and resort personnel refusing to move them to better rooms, because they hadn't booked directly with the resort. Three told tales of canceling and still fighting for refunds.

 I called the company and cancelled. The operator said he'd send me an email confirming the cancellation. I waited an hour without receiving an email. The "terms and conditions" email had hit my inbox while I was still on the phone with the first operator! I called again and said I wanted to cancel a reservation. My reservation was still in place, just as if I had not already cancelled it. I asked the operator to send me the email while remaining on the phone with me. He had to consult a supervisor, but he did it. I then checked my online credit card statement obsessively every day for a week. But no fraudulent charges, so we dodged that bullet.

So we booked through Expedia, which we're pretty sure we can trust, and still got a pretty good deal at a really nice resort on Medano Beach.

Next! On to the flights. There must be a lot of flights, we told ourselves. It's a major tourist destination. Well, yes, there are a lot of flights--with 26-hour layovers in Los Angeles! By the time we winnowed out all the two-day trips, we were left with American Airlines with layovers of one hour and 20 minutes in Dallas. The layovers sound not quite long enough if we have any problem with late flights, or if there's a long line at immigration or baggage claim or customs when we re-enter the U.S. But it was pretty much the only choice, so we booked it. And it was expensive. And then they charged us $21 to book any seat other than a choice of three middle seats. Maybe they don't charge extra baggage check fees, though, since they already gouged us on seat reservations. Ha! I know--I was just making a sad little joke.

Next morning-- breaking news!  American Airlines had two emergency landings because rows of seats broke loose and slid into the laps of passengers in the next row back. Great! Well, I'm sure our extra $21 preferred seating charge means we'll get the good seats that are firmly fastened to the floor. One of these articles mentioned that American has many late flights. So that will be good when we're connecting in Dallas. When I texted K about the seats, she texted back about a pending pilots' strike
at American.

I proposed taking my Subaru and driving. It would be the classic Baja road trip! But K has that job that limits her to a one-week vacation. And really, it still should be easier to fly. Maybe.

Next! We moved on to natural disasters and oddities.

K wants to scuba dive while we're in Cabo. She is also phobic about snakes and assorted other creatures, including some sea creatures. So, of course, a "monster from the deep" oarfish washed up on Medano Beach--probably right in front of the resort where we'll be staying (although the article didn't actually say that). I sent a link to K so she could see the picture of this 20-foot long "monster from the deep" taking its dying breaths on our beach. She called me from her office and said we should reconsider this whole Mexico thing and just go to Florida instead. Joke's on her--a mysterious giant sea creature eyeball washed up on the beach in Florida around the same time. So we're still set for Mexico. We'll see what happens with the scuba diving.

And then, a couple of nights ago, I was watching the weather report. What else could happen? Hurricane! I actually did think to check on hurricane season when we started out with this whole ill-fated Cabo vacation idea. Surveys show big storms in October, but no hurricane ever hit Cabo in November. Well, it's still October. And Tropical Storm Paul (soon to be Hurricane Paul) was headed towards Cabo. I texted K yet again. She mentioned Florida again. But Paul had fizzled by morning, without causing lasting damage to tourist facilities on Medano Beach.

When K and I first got the idea of a beach vacation in Cabo, I thought the whole thing would be so easy! It's not like it's a trip to Africa or somewhere far away with few tourist facilities. But we will be spending a week at the beach. In Mexico. Sea monsters? Hurricanes? Falling airplane seats? We laugh in the face of danger and chaos! Because...

...we are mujeres con huevos!

And we are going to the beach! 

(This beach actually is in Africa, but I'll post some pictures of Medano Beach later...I hope!)