The explosion's cause is unknown, but the section of pipeline has frequently experienced gas theft.
A gas fire continued to burn Monday morning in Nuevo Leon after a Pemex pipe exploded at 5 a.m. about 145 kilometers from the city of Monterrey.
The explosion, which occurred 30 kilometers from the city of China, ignited an area of grassy terrain about 800 meters in diameter. No deaths and no injuries were reported.
Governor Jaime Rodriguez Calderon confirmed the accident on social media and said that state, federal, and local authorities, including Civil Protection, had flown by helicopter this morning over the affected area.
Pemex officials managed to turn off the valves to stop the flow of gas to that part of the pipeline. The residual gas has been left to burn itself out. Authorities said there was no risk of the fire affecting the local population.
The explosion’s cause is currently unknown, although the area has seen several instances of illegal taps of the pipeline in the last year. The federal Attorney General’s Office will be investigating the explosion’s origin.
Members of the nearby community of Guitarritas, located five kilometers away from the scene of the explosion, reported the explosion to emergency services.
Covid-19 fatalities increased 6.6% in October compared to September but the monthly death toll of 14,107 was only the fourth highest since the start of the pandemic after July, June and August.
However, last month’s high case tally is concerning given that hospitalizations of coronavirus patients and deaths generally lag new infections.
Mexico has now recorded a total of 929,392 confirmed coronavirus cases with 4,430 new cases reported on Sunday. The official Covid-19 death toll stands at 91,895 with 142 additional fatalities registered the same day.
Based on confirmed cases and deaths, Mexico’s fatality rate is 9.9 per 100 cases, the highest among the 20 countries currently most affected by Covid-19, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Mexico City continues to lead the country for confirmed coronavirus cases and Covid-19 deaths, with 162,693 of the former and 15,202 of the latter. México state ranks second in both categories with 98,365 cases and 10,710 Covid-19 deaths, according to official data.
The Health Ministry estimates that there are currently 50,981 active cases across the country.
In sheer numbers, Mexico City also leads the country for active cases with 12,739 but Durango ranks first on a per capita basis.
The northern state currently has 101.4 active cases per 100,000 residents, Health Ministry data shows. Baja California Sur ranks second with 91.1 active cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
At the municipal level, Querétaro city has the highest number of active cases in Mexico with 1,292 as of Sunday. Durango city and Monterrey, Nuevo León, both of which have just over 1,000 active cases, rank second and third, respectively.
The northern Mexico City borough of Gustavo A. Madero and Torreón, Coahuila, round out the top five with 941 and 837 active cases, respectively.
The accumulated case tally and Covid-19 death toll in Mexico are both widely believed to be much higher than official statistics show due to a low testing rate.
The Health Ministry reported late last month that there were almost 200,000 more deaths than expected between January and September 26 and that 139,153 were attributable to Covid-19.
By September 26, the Health Ministry had only reported 76,243 confirmed Covid-19 fatalities, a figure that equates to just 55% of the excess deaths determined to have been caused by Covid-19.
Clean energy could be a source of friction between López Obrador and Biden.
President López Obrador offered his newly elected Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernández some private advice last year on how to deal with the U.S. president: “With Trump you can do anything you want, just don’t say anything, don’t get into a confrontation with him and you’ll be fine.”
The advice was sound. While Mr. Trump likes to issue ultimatums to Latin American presidents, his bark is often worse than his bite. Threats to close the Mexican border, impose punitive tariffs on Brazil or to invade Venezuela all proved empty.
A Joe Biden presidency may be more of a challenge. Diplomats and former senior U.S. officials say the Democrat’s positions on trade, human rights, climate change and fighting corruption might prove uncomfortable for some of the region’s leaders, who have grown accustomed to a U.S. president turning a blind eye.
“On issues like trade, labour and the environment, Biden might be much tougher than Trump,” said Jorge Castañeda, a former Mexican foreign minister.
Juan Cruz, who served as the top White House adviser on Latin America from 2017-2019, said the region had worked out a modus vivendi with Mr. Trump. “He may be a bit black-and-white and transactional but they get it, the presidents (in the region) absolutely get it and they have figured it out,” he said.
“What you’ll get with a Biden presidency is matrixed, integrated, shades-of-grey foreign policy. We’ll praise you on some issues and criticize you on others. That will give them whiplash.”
Some things would not change if Mr. Biden was inaugurated in January: Latin America would not be a top priority, particularly for a U.S. president facing a dire public health and economic emergency. Within the region, Mexico would be the main focus because of its long land border — a major source of illegal immigration and smuggled drugs — and its status as a top trade and investment partner.
Mr. Biden, who knows the region well from his time as vice president, has promised to end many of Mr. Trump’s immigration policies. He would stop building a wall along the Mexican border and offer a US $4-billion aid plan to boost prosperity in Central America, the origin of much of the migration.
That brings its own risks. Thomas Shannon, a former top official at the state department, said: “The biggest challenge early on may be the immigration issue. There’s real pressure to reverse the Trump steps on migration, refugees and asylum but if they are not careful how this is done, it could lead a lot of people in Central America to decide that now is the time to head north.”
Mr. Biden’s commitments on climate change may be another source of friction in a region where many presidents are still wedded to fossil fuel-powered development. The Democrat has outlined plans for a clean energy revolution and if he wins, he will face renewed pressure to confront Mr. López Obrador, who has focused his entire economic vision on boosting oil and coal.
U.S. companies and legislators from both sides of the aisle say Mr. López Obrador’s attempts to penalize renewable energy generation in Mexico are discriminatory and could violate the USMCA trade treaty which replaced NAFTA. While the president calls renewables generation a “sophistry” and vows to boost Mexico’s state oil and electricity companies, several international groups are considering arbitration to protect their investments.
“Energy policy will be a key point on Biden’s domestic agenda and his domestic economic agenda as well as his foreign policy agenda. That will pose a challenge to the current Mexican government,” said Antonio Ortiz-Mena at Albright Stonebridge group, a consultancy.
Mr. Biden’s views on Amazon deforestation have already upset Brazil’s hard-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who is close to Mr. Trump. Responding to a Biden threat of “significant economic consequences” if the country does not respond to his $20 billion plan to protect the rainforest, Mr. Bolsonaro said the Democratic candidate had shown a “clear sign of contempt for cordial and fruitful coexistence.”
“Climate is a big one for Biden and … he will isolate Bolsonaro and his associates,” said a senior diplomat who follows Brazil closely. “For them, losing their big friend up north could be quite a problem. They have put all their eggs in that basket.”
Mr. Bolsonaro is not the only Latin American leader to have bet heavily on Mr. Trump. Colombia’s Iván Duque also faces an awkward start with a Biden administration because of his role as a cheerleader for Trump policies on Venezuela and at the Inter-American Development Bank. “The Colombians have really screwed up. They have played this election poorly and they have put themselves in it by being very favourable to Trump,” a former senior U.S. official said.
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who was recognized as the country’s rightful leader by the U.S. at the start of last year, has seen his star wane in Washington as political deadlock continues in Venezuela. Mr. Guaidó’s strong backing for Mr. Trump’s “maximum pressure” sanctions on Venezuela makes him a less-than-ideal partner for a Biden administration looking to adopt a more multilateral, negotiated approach to relieve the country’s acute humanitarian crisis.
With Venezuela, as with Cuba, a Biden administration is unlikely to turn the clock straight back to Obama-era detente; the clout of anti-communist Latino voters in the key state of Florida will see to that. Cautious steps to build confidence are more likely.
With leaders in the Andean nations of Chile, Peru and Ecuador all due to step down following elections in the first year of a new U.S. president, Mr. Fernández of Argentina, a pragmatic leftist, stands out as one of the Latin American leaders who may benefit from a President Biden.
But neither U.S. presidential candidate has said much so far about what is arguably the region’s greatest challenge: the need to update its commodity-dependent economies for the 21st century to restart growth and deliver the prosperity sought by an increasingly restive population.
A Maya altar on display at Pixan, Festival of the Souls, in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo. Richard Arghiris
After days of preparing food, building altars, and cleaning their homes, Maya families across the Yucatán Peninsula are ready to welcome the first of their special guests — the souls of deceased loved ones.
Hanal Pixán, meaning “Food for the Souls,” is the region’s annual Day of the Dead tradition, which starts on October 31. It’s when Maya families welcome the souls of lost children. On November 1, they receive the souls of adults, and on November 2 there is a mass for all souls.
Paulino Ek Martín, 29, is a Maya language teacher originally from Tipikal, Yucatán, who lives in Señor, Quintana Roo. He said that to celebrate Hanal Pixán, families cook a traditional dish, chachac waj, for their visiting loved ones.
The dish resembles a large tamal and consists of masa (corn dough), chicken and k’ool, a bright-red salsa made with achiote paste.
The traditional method of cooking chachac waj is to dig a hole in the ground, place stones and wood at the bottom, light a fire and set the tamales in the earth, where they are covered with leaves and left to cook for about an hour. This practice of cooking by burying food is called pib.
A trail of candles beckons the souls to an altar in Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Richard Arghiris
Ek explained that the act of digging a hole for chachac waj signifies the burial of the deceased, while the tradition of taking the food from the ground represents the annual return of the souls to visit the living. Later the tamales are placed on the altars, ready for the visiting souls.
Altars are an essential part of Day of the Dead traditions across Mexico, and the Yucatán is no different, although the Maya have their own customs.
“[For the altar] we use a flat, rectangular table that represents the plane of the earth,” Oscar Mis, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher from Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo, said. “Each of the table’s legs represent four gods supporting the plane.”
Traditionally, Maya build altars from sticks, covering them with banana leaves, on top of which they place the Maya cross, which is dressed in a white shroud.
“The cross does not represent Catholicism or Christianity,” said Mis. “[At the time of the Conquest], Maya culture was considered part of four cardinal points, and this is represented by our cross, which signifies our sacred tree, the ceiba or yaxché [in Maya].”
Other offerings, such as wildflowers, handmade tortillas, pozol — a drink made of fermented corn dough — and fruit like mandarins and bananas are also placed upon the altars.
A Maya altar with chachac waj on display at a technical college in Felipe Carrillo Puerto as part of its annual altar competition in 2019. Hannah Wood
In the days leading up to Hanal Pixán, families will clean loved ones’ graves, removing weeds and painting the tombs. They also spend time making their homes impeccable so that the souls feel comfortable.
Families remove mirrors and items made of glass or nails, and they hide animals by putting them in their pens or tying them up.
“According to our customs, the animals are the ones who can see the souls; we can’t see them. The animals see them, and the souls get scared. It is an obstacle that can prevent them from entering the home,” explained Mis.
Another common Maya belief, Ek said, is that the souls need to be guided home.
“When the souls come, they have a guide called ‘death’ or ‘the controller of death.’ This guide takes the souls to their respective homes,” he explained. “Another way is to put candles along the road so that the light guides the soul.
“I believe that the guide, who is also a soul, will leave them on the street, maybe a block or two from the house. Then the soul, realizing that it is their home, follows the trail of candles.”
A man carries a candle at a Festival of the Souls in Quintana Roo. Richard Arghiris
When the souls of loved ones arrive home, it is a time of celebration, a time to honor the deceased, remember them, and celebrate their lives, he said.
“When a relative is visiting me, I do not see them; that is obvious. But you feel their presence, so much that sometimes you start to cry remembering them — or so much that you start to laugh. This is us remembering [our loved ones], and it is part of our happiness because now we are living with them again,” Ek says.
While Hanal Pixán is a well celebrated tradition, both men lamented that some practices are at risk of being lost by younger generations. Mis said the custom of guiding the souls with candles is common throughout the Yucatán, but “it is rare to find a 25-year-old or 20-year-old who knows this tradition and who talks about it.”
Mis said it is common for people to incorporate Day of the Dead customs that are Mexican but not traditionally Maya, such as the Catrina, sugar skulls, and face painting. While he is not against mixing cultural traditions, he said that young people must not forget their roots.
“There are things we are losing, both language and traditions,” Mis says. “We have to foster these traditions in young people. We must get them to pay attention to these traditions, value them, and adopt them as part of their life. We have to pass this on from generation to generation so that these customs that we have practiced for millennia are not lost.”
Sánchez accused Aureoles of 'constitutional crimes.'
Interior Minister Olga Sánchez Cordero has accused the governor of Michoacán of violating the state and federal constitutions by calling for Mexican migrants in the United States to vote against President Donald Trump in Tuesday’s election.
In a letter to Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero, Sánchez accused Governor Silvano Aureoles of committing “constitutional crimes.”
“Meddling in the way that you do in the internal affairs of another country, in an external electoral process, conducting foreign policy when it does not correspond to you, makes you involved, in my opinion, in constitutional crimes,” she said.
The reprimand comes after Aureoles uploaded a video to social media in which he called on the migrant population in the United States to vote for a change and reminded them that four years ago Trump called Mexicans criminals and drug traffickers.
“On this occasion, the Mexican votes in the United States can give meaning to the necessary change and put in place a president who understands our struggles, respects our culture and identifies with our causes,” he said.
Sánchez said those words violate the constitutional principle of respect and self-determination. “It places the Mexican state in a very delicate situation in terms of foreign policy.”
Aureoles countered that Mexico owes respect to those who respect it, not those who offend and attack it.
“I want to tell you that the statement I made is the result of my deep concern for the more than 4 million Michoacán citizens living in the U.S.,” he posted on Twitter.
“I remind you that … our countrymen have been mistreated, offended and their rights attacked by Donald Trump since he was a candidate in the previous elections,” Aureoles said.
Yampolsky: one of her fears was that people’s sense of community would be lost in a modernizing Mexico.
Day of the Dead is more than just welcoming back our loved ones to “eat” tamales. Images of Frida Kahlo, heroes from the Mexican Revolution, and even local personages appear on public altars, not because anyone might be related to them, but because these people are important to cultural identity.
While we might not think of ourselves as such, we foreigners living and exploring Mexico are part of an inter-generational phenomenon, which has a long history and even unsung heroes.
One of these heroes is U.S.-born photographer Mariana Yampolsky, perhaps the most important documenter of folkloric Mexico of the mid and latter 20th century.
Born in Chicago in 1925, she was a first-generation American whose family had strong political views. After graduating from college in 1944, she came to Mexico to study painting and participate in the country’s strong socialist and anti-fascist movements. She was one of the first foreigners to be fully accepted into the militaristic Taller de Gráfica Popular artist workshop, which was and is best known for its graphic work.
Their influence shifted her focus to graphic art, but more importantly, she decided to document the Taller’s work through photography.
El Mandil, a 1988 photograph by Yampolsky.
The generation of Mexican artists she worked under included greats such as Leopoldo Méndez, Pablo O’Higgins, and Alberto Beltrán. She also studied with renowned artists Lola and Manuel Alvárez Bravo, two of the photographers that had set the standard for photographing the country in the 20th century. These experiences helped her to “fall in love” with the rural Mexico of that time, its people, folk art, landscapes, politics, and culture.
This love for Mexico included extended travel in the country, although that was far more difficult than today. She began traveling the country long before the modern toll roads and the hotels in every town of any size, not to mention widespread internet or even landline phone service.
Longtime friend and fellow artist Helen Bickham traveled with her on various occasions. Her stories include sleeping on dirt floors in small huts and even an incident where the two had to negotiate ferry passage between two rival towns in Veracruz.
Despite appalling or non-existent roads, people who had rarely or never seen a güera (light-skinned woman) before, she traveled over much of the country in her little Volkswagen Beetle and sometimes even on burros.
She did some of her travels for commissioned work, but very often it was simply to see and photograph the country she adopted. Over her lifetime, she took over 66,000 photographs in Mexico, a tremendous number if you consider the expense and difficulty of analog photography, especially in the past.
Her themes are those considered “classic” for Mexico: native plants, farm workers, traditional rituals, and those related to poverty. Those that veered away from these topics, such as architecture, were specifically because of commissions. Some of her best known work includes The Blessing of the Corn (1960s) and Apron (1988).
Estación Martell, 1988.
One of her concerns was that a rapidly modernizing Mexico would lead to the loss of its uniqueness and its people’s sense of community.
Yampolsky’s talent and determination allowed her to make the transition from amateur to professional photographer by 1949, working for publishing houses and government entities.
Her work still appears in Mexican books, newspapers, and magazines because of their importance.
Her first exhibition as a photographer came in 1960. Over her career, she contributed photographs and graphic work for 17 books, with 50 individual exhibitions and 150 collective shows to her credit. Her work is documented in over a dozen books dedicated solely to her, and her work is part of public and private collections around the world.
Yampolsky is one of those foreigners who chose to “go native.” Mexican writer and close friend Elena Poniatowska is widely quoted as saying “Mariana was born in the United States but she got sick of being thought of as a gringo because she loved Mexico in the way that only converts generally love God.” Yampolsky became a Mexican citizen in 1958, renouncing her U.S. citizenship.
Yampolsky, who died in 2002, wanted her photograph and negative collection to stay in Mexico, so the Mariana Yampolsky Foundation was founded and functioned until 2018, when the collection was turned over to the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City for safekeeping.
Sky by Mariana Yampolsky.
Unfortunately, this means that it can be very difficult for the average person today to see her work, but it is possible to see some of it online such as this collection on Pinterest.
This is a shame because her work strikes a chord in the U.S. psyche as well as the Mexican one. Part of it indeed is that the imagery is now so classic for depicting Mexico, but there is something else.
Yampolsky, like expats before and since, fell in love with the Mexico of her time, and was concerned about it disappearing, being destroyed by the never ending march of change.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 17 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture. She publishes a blog called Creative Hands of Mexicoand her first book, Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta, was published last year. Her culture blog appears weekly on Mexico News Daily.
Maleck was also fined 3 million pesos and ordered to pay reparation of 932,000 pesos.
Former professional soccer player Joao Maleck has been sentenced to three years, eight months and 15 days in prison and ordered to pay a fine of 3 million pesos (US $141,600) after being found guilty of aggravated homicide last week in connection with a traffic accident in 2019.
Maleck plowed his Ford Mustang into a car at 9 a.m. on June 23 in Zapopan, Jalisco, killing newlywed couple María Fernanda Peña and Alejandro Castro, who had married the night before.
The athlete was also ordered to pay 932,000 pesos (US $44,000) to the couple’s children.
Maleck, who was playing for a Spanish soccer club at the time and vacationing in his hometown of Guadalajara, had posted numerous photos to social media the night before the accident from a nightclub where he had been partying until late.
Maleck, 20 at the time, was found to have been speeding and had alcohol in his system at the time of the accident. He has been in jail since June 24, 2019.
The soccer star’s lawyer, Alberto González, says his client has matured since the accident and wants to get back to living his life.
Attorneys for the victims said they will seek to appeal the sentence and will argue for more time behind bars. María Peña’s mother also expressed her dismay.
“They died, she at 26 and her 33-year-old husband, with all the dreams of forming their own family … It is not fair that this person has ended their lives … I demand justice, I am not going to stop until I get it,” she said when the sentence was announced on Friday.
Despite the sentence, the law states that Maleck could be released from prison in just 15 days provided he pays the fines.
A Rolls-Royce and a pink Cadillac El Dorado were among the vehicles seized.
The search of a house owned by a former Mexico City police chief turned up a garage full of pristine classic cars and other vehicles, the Attorney General’s Office revealed.
Authorities executing a search warrant at the home of Raymundo Collins in Tequesquitengo, Morelos, said they found 41 vintage vehicles, three personal watercraft, an ATV, a motorcycle and a boat. Various works of art were also seized.
An arrest warrant for Collins, currently a fugitive of justice who is wanted by Interpol, was issued on September 8, accusing the longtime bureaucrat of unlawful use of power, punishable with up to two years in prison.
During Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard’s tenure as mayor of Mexico City, Collins was in charge of the Central de Abasto, the largest wholesale and retail market in the world.
Collins was also head of Mexico City’s housing program from 2012 through 2018 during the Miguel Ángel Mancera administration when the alleged abuse of power occurred and was deputy police chief when President López Obrador was mayor of the city.
Collins and former mayor Mancera.
In March, Collins was prohibited from holding office in Mexico City for 20 years and ordered to pay a fine of 320 million pesos (US $15.1 million) after it was found he illegally acquired a property in Álvaro Obregón.
Since current Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum took office, arrest warrants have been issued for three other Mancera-era public officials and two others have been arrested on charges of corruption.
Ann Murdy's award-winning book shares photos of the celebration in rural areas of Michoacán, Oaxaca and Puebla.
For almost 30 years, United States-based photographer Ann Murdy has been visually documenting the Day of the Dead across Mexico. Now, her new book on the holiday is attracting worldwide acclaim.
On the Path of Marigolds: Living Traditions of Mexico’s Day of the Dead shares 90 of Murdy’s photographs from three rural areas — Huaquechula, Puebla; Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca; and the communities around Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. This summer, the book won a gold medal from the Foreword INDIES book competition. Last month, it received an honorable mention from the International Latino Book Awards in the best arts book category.
“I did not expect gold,” Murdy said. “I’m a first-time author. I’m not a famous photographer … In June, I went to the website of the INDIES awards. I scrolled down in the adult nonfiction multicultural [category]. I saw the silver and bronze [winners]. All of a sudden, I saw [I had won the] gold. Oh, my Lord, I was in shock.”
She was similarly surprised and pleased with the recognition from the Latino Book Awards, a competition for entrants across Europe, the United States and Latin America.
Over the decades, Murdy has grown increasingly familiar with the Day of the Dead holiday, which occurs from October 31 to November 2. Many of her book’s images reflect its traditions across Mexico, such as gathering at the graves of loved ones with food, drink and mariachi music.
At a Day of the Dead altar in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca.
Each area of Mexico she documented is represented by 30 photos taken between 2009 and 2018. Not only did Murdy take photos in cemeteries, but she also captured more intimate commemorations at home altars, or ofrendas.
“They look very comfortable,” she said of her photos of home visits. “I did not pose anybody … The most important thing was respect.”
Murdy gave a virtual book talk on October 21 at the Santa Fe Public Library, in her hometown. It was so successful that she was to do an encore presentation on October 30. In her book talk last week, she called the Day of the Dead “one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve ever witnessed in my life.”
Overall, she explained, the holiday has “changed my perceptions of death and dying” and she hopes that the traditions depicted in her book will live on forever. She describes the book as an attempt to preserve those traditions in the wake of increasing commercialization of the holiday.
The Day of the Dead is becoming mixed with Halloween in Mexico as people masquerade as calaveras (skulls), witches, vampires and ghosts. In recent years, the holiday has been marketed with products such as a Barbie doll, a breakfast cereal and an Air Jordan sneaker.
Another perhaps more benign example relates to one of the communities around Lake Pátzcuaro that Murdy photographed — Santa Fe de la Laguna, which some call the inspiration for the village in the hit Disney film Coco.
Ann Murdy, award-winning author of “On the Path of Marigolds”
In the film, a boy named Miguel connects with his ancestors on Day of the Dead. His abuela, Mamá Coco, was reportedly inspired by a 107-year-old Santa Fe de la Laguna resident, María Salud Ramírez Caballero.
While Murdy enjoyed the movie, she is concerned about increasing numbers of tourists who wish to experience the holiday in Mexico, where many exhibit what she calls disrespectful behavior, such as taking selfies in cemeteries and at private homes.
By contrast, she said, “My book is a testament to traditions that are authentic in three rural communities in Mexico.”
Murdy is well-versed in documenting Mexican traditions. Over 2,000 of her photos are archived in the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, the largest Mexican museum in the United States. An interview between Murdy and the museum’s chief curator, Cesáreo Moreno, is included in the book, as is an essay by Denise Chávez, a Mexican American writer.
During her time in Mexico, Murdy said she has learned how here the dead are remembered in a way both reflective and celebratory, in contrast to what she describes as the United States’ more tight-lipped approach.
“It’s a much more healthy way of looking at death and dying,” she said.
Praying at the altar in Santa Fe de Laguna, Michoacán
Murdy, from Orange County, California, had never heard of the Day of the Dead holiday growing up. Once she learned about it, she went to Mexico to witness this annual event and encountered compelling visual images: the deceased guided by candlelight on a marigold-strewn path from the cemetery to the ofrenda as mariachis play and copal incense burns, with plenty of mole, tamales, hot chocolate and mezcal put out for the dead who will return to visit their loved ones.
She started in 1991 with a visit to the main cemetery in the city of Oaxaca. A few years later, she visited the cemetery at night. Then she traveled southeast to Teotitlán del Valle, an indigenous Zapotec Oaxacan village and the first of the three communities she would draw upon for the book.
She recalled people there flooding the market on October 31 to buy flowers such as cresta de gallo and marigolds, also called flor de muertos or cempasúchil. She saw people buying various kinds of pan de muerto, as well as apples, oranges, jicama and cacao. Church bells rang and bottle rockets went off on November 1, with another round of fireworks the next day. In the cemetery, she heard not only mariachis but also rezadores, a cappella singers with what she described as a strong, piercing melody.
Walking from house to house to see home altars, she stopped in for pan de muerto and hot chocolate, although she declined the mezcal and beer. Sometimes people conversed in Zapotec, a language she does not speak. She was fascinated by the altars — which she described as completely different from those in the city of Oaxaca.
A holiday that came from Aztec festivals
She grew to understand the pre-Hispanic roots of the holiday. As she explained, it arose from two separate Aztec Day of the Dead harvest festivals. The first festival honored the “little dead,” children who had died during the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, known as Tlaxochimaco. It lasts from July 24 to August 12. The second festival was the great festival of the dead, which occurred in the tenth month of Huey Miccailhuitl, which lasts from August 13 to September 1.
When the Spanish conquered Mexico, they kept these rituals, with changes that helped pave the way for conversion to Catholicism.
“They saw the death rituals were very important to indigenous people,” she said. “They said, ‘Let’s keep the death rituals and switch them to All Saints’ Day, November 1, and All Souls’ Day, November 2.’”
Murdy continued exploring how the holiday is celebrated regionally, including in the Huaquechula and the Lake Pátzcuaro communities.
Ultimately, she visited nine lakeside communities, including Ihuatzio, where she took the photo that was chosen for the cover, and Santa Fe de la Laguna. Again, residents here sometimes conversed in an indigenous language, in this case Purépecha.
“I really prefer going to indigenous communities,” Murdy said. “I’ve been told that Purépecha beliefs were similar to the Aztecs’.”
Girls at a rare three-tiered memorial altar in Huaquechula, Puebla.
On October 30, people in lakeside communities prepare a box with four rectangular frames, filling it with food to represent the bounty of heaven. Hundreds of marigolds decorate bamboo arcos, or arches, and if it is the first year following an individual’s death, a straw mat is placed by his or her grave so that the soul can rest while journeying back to the Land of the Living.
In Huaquechula, Murdy also saw a unique way of honoring people in the first year after their death — the monumental altar.
This altar is an extensive, week-long undertaking to construct. Its three tiers represent birth, life and death, with each one separated by baroque columns. White satin folds represent the clouds of heaven. A photo of the deceased adorns the altar, as does a mirror and the deceased’s favorite foods.
“Most people have never seen monumental altars,” Murdy said. “I don’t know why the tourism department in Puebla doesn’t advertise them more.”
This year, it seems that few will get to see these altars, or other historic traditions featured in Murdy’s book. Due to the coronavirus, public Day of the Dead observances have been canceled throughout Mexico. It gives an unexpected, added significance to her book’s release.
“[Even] prior to the pandemic, the photographs had cultural value,” Murdy said. “I sort of think today, who knows what’s going to happen? It’s important to preserve them.”
Rich Tenorio is a frequent contributor to Mexico News Daily.
Turtle numbers are more than double the number normally seen.
Reduced human activity due to the coronavirus pandemic has been cited as the main reason why a record number of olive ridley sea turtles hatched on a beach in Sonora this year.
Only 500 to 1,000 turtles usually hatch on Playa Mancha Blanca in the Gulf of California in Desemboque, Pitiquito, but 2,289 have already been released into the sea so far this year and the two-week long hatching season still has five days to go.
Mayra Estrella Astorga, coordinator of the conservation group Tortugueros del Desemboque, described the large number of hatchlings as “majestic,” adding that the local community of indigenous Seri, or Comcaac, people have never seen anything like it.
“I believe that it is due to the pandemic. In one way it benefited us, … it was a benefit for us to see more turtles. … During this time they didn’t allow [fishing] boats in,” she said.
“This year has been one of the hardest for our community. The pandemic brought sickness and death to our people, and complicated the economic situation here,” Astorga said in an interview.
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“That’s why we are so happy that, in the middle of this tragedy, this miracle of nature happened — as a result of fewer fishing boats and tourists, but also through the efforts of the community.”
On hand to see the release of 720 recently-hatched olive ridley turtles was Rubén Albarrán, singer of the acclaimed rock band Café Tacvba and an environmental activist.
“It really is very beautiful seeing the Comcaac people showing their responsibility and the beautiful relationship they have with their environment,” he said.
“All indigenous people have that connection [to the environment] and profound knowledge about it. They’re the ones who look after these areas that give life to the planet. They’re our big brothers and we can learn from them.”
Olive ridley turtles are the most abundant sea turtle species in the world but they are nevertheless endangered. The global population of the species has declined by 30% to 50% in recent decades, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
