Seis Días de los Muertos

As we approached Día de los Muertos, I could feel the excitement in my family growing. "Josh, ¿cuantos de tus amigos vendrán a hacer pan? Josh, how many of your friends are coming to make bread?" my cousin Jacobo would eagerly ask me. He had invited my YAGM Mexico friends to come to Tlaxcala for the quintessential Mexican holiday in order to make Pan de Muerto and experience the traditions of Tlaxcala. When I asked my family about the traditions of Día de los Muertos in Tlaxcala and within our family, the answers I received were vague. Like many other aspects of life in Mexico, I realized that I would just have to wait and experience Día de los Muertos myself. Here is an account - in words and pictures - of what I experienced.

Calaveras de Chocolate en el mercado antes de Día de los Muertos ::
Chocolate skulls in the market leading up to Día de los Muertos

DAY ONE - OCTOBER 28th

Today was dedicated to making offerings to those who have died in accidents: drowning, choking, fires, car accidents, etc. My family has four relatives that have died from accidents. Mamá put together a small offering for these family members, consisting of:

-a candle: a light to illumine the path
-a cross made of flowers: to find their destination
-salt: to purify the salt
-water, fruit, and Pan de Muerto for each individual: to eat, drink, and enjoy

DAY TWO - OCTOBER 29th

Today, I accompanied Tía Norma to the school she works at in order to see their Día de los Muertos celebrations. The school had displayed a number of Catrinas that kids had made.

A number of kids had their faces painted as skeletons, and a number of girls were dressed up as Catrinas.

One class in the school was responsible for making an offering.

Cempazúchitl flowers - more commonly known as Flor de Muerto - adorn the offering and lead over a hundred feet from the entrance of the school, guiding the dead to the offering. 

Colorful and intricate tissue paper art decorate the offering. 

A picture of Jesus and the Virgin adorn the top of this offering. Many offerings hold the pictures of deceased loved ones to which the offering is dedicated.

The offering is filled with oranges, bananas, tamales, mole, bread, Pan de Muerto, apples, rice, Calaveras de Amaranto, Calaveras de Chocolate, jicama, sugar cane, camote, chicken, tequila and mezcal. 

Candles and incense bath the offering.

In addition to the offering, there was a large fiesta. Each class in the school was responsible for brining one dish: rice, tamales, tlacloyos, agua, tortillas, mole or candy. Everyone ate and took in the surroundings for an hour or two before school was dismissed for the day.

DAY THREE - OCTOBER 30th

At the shelter, we made an offering for the three migrants who had died in/near Apizaco during the last couple of years. The offering was adorned with paper-tissue art, flowers, water, guayaba, sugar cane, jicama, oranges, flowers, and the names of the three individuals who had passed away. The crosses adorned the ground: one of dirt to remind us that those passed away lived and walked on the earth with us, one of salt to purify the souls of the deceased, and one of flowers to celebrate the deceased. After putting the altar together, we had a service of sorts that lasted close to an hour. I think we said the Rosary during the service, but I'm not really sure. [Church services or speeches combined with a language in which you are not completely familiar is a good recipe for a lack of attention.]

In memory of Arlen Nahum, Henry Hernandez & Marly Marcial + Chavez

DAY FOUR - OCTOBER 31st

Today my YAGM friends Becca and Alyssa accompanied me to my cousin Jacobo's house to make Pan de Muerto. We began shortly after 7am by mixing the ingredients for the bread. 

We mixed flour, sugar, vanilla, eggs, oil, milk, yeast [and probably some other things that I don't remember]. We did this three different times, making one batch with nueces [pecans], one with guayaba [guava], and one with canola [cinnamon]. 

After this, we allowed the bread to rise. 

And we prepared the adobe-like oven for baking. [A fire was made within the oven to heat the stones around the oven. Eventually, the sticks and coals were removed, and baking commenced. Every once in a while, a blow torch was put inside the oven to add heat again.]

After the bread rose a tad-bit, we formed it into Pan de Muerto. It is called this because the pieces of dough that adorn the top represent huesos [bones] and the ball in the middle represents a skull.

After forming the pieces of bread, we added a glaze and seeds. 

At this point, it was 3pm. We had been working on the Pan de Muerto - and taking breaks - for over seven hours. We had formed seventy pieces of Pan de Muerto with nuez from the mixture, but still lacked the baking, and the formation of the other 2/3 of the mix. Alyssa, Becca, Catherine [who also joined us] and I decided to go see some Día de los Muertos traditions in the center of town, while my family continued to bake. Jacobo did not finish baking until after 2am! Here is a video of the process we undertook to make Pan de Muerto

The Zócalo in Tlaxcala hosted about a dozen different altars that people and organizations had made. It was part cultural display and part offering competition.

After viewing the offerings in the center of town, we headed back to my house to celebrate the birthdays of my sisters: Annie and Karla. The party was part birthday, part Halloween party, and part Día de los Muertos celebration, outfitted with face painting, a mariachi band, a taco stand, and plenty of tequila and mezcal. It was a fun night of celebrating life with my Mexican family and American friends.

My primas Laura & Yiyi, My sisters Karla & Annie

DAY FIVE - NOVEMBER 1st

Today, we put together a big offering in our house for the abuelos and bisabuelos. 

Traditional Candy: Cajeta, Camote, Cocada y más

DAY SIX - NOVEMBER 2nd

Today felt like New Year's Day. Most people had the day off. The town was quiet, and we spent most of the day laying around the house. In the afternoon, my family went to the grave site of los abuelos and laid flowers there.

Goofy Gringo Cuentitos [short stories]

Living a new country inevitably leads to interesting incidents, misunderstandings and lessons learned. Life is even more ridiculous when you live with a big, outrageous, and loving Mexican family. The last couple of months have created a number of great stories. Here are a few of the funny stories of mishaps and mistakes that I have made...

Miel Cough Drops

Saturday and Sunday of every weekend, the center of Tlaxcala – the town in which I live – is flooded with people buying and selling fruit, clothes, artisanal goods, and even animals. It’s like a farmer’s market, only much bigger, more active, and more vibrant. Plus, it’s not only health nuts and hippies at the market, all kind of people are there. One specific plaza in the center of town sells only hand-made crafts, goods, and natural products.  One Sunday, I accompanied my Tía Norma and Luis to a honey stand in this plaza. I was given a few samples of honey, and then the owner of the stand began telling me about the candy that they also sold. I didn’t understand all of what he was saying, but I was pretty confident that I understood him. He had me taste a certain candy that is supposed to help with gripe – the flu. I wanted to support his business, but felt no need to buy flu medicine candy. So, I proceeded to buy some honey suckers. After walking away from the stand, I popped one in my mouth. It was kind of sweet, but also tasted like a cough drop. I realized that this candy was also for gripe. I laughed at myself. I’m sure the man had told me this and I just didn’t realize it. I will make sure to ask more questions next time I don’t understand what someone is saying. 

posing with rice I helped make at the shelter

Agua de Zanahoria con Sal

Here in Mexico, agua does not have the same meaning as “water” in the U.S. Yes, agua means “water.” Most of the time though, when someone drinks agua, they are drinking a flavored beverage, consisting of water, fruit juice or blended fruit or another flavoring, and a butt-load of sugar. [i.e. Agua de Mandarin, Agua de Chia, Agua de Frutas, Agua de Alfalfa, Agua de Chocolate, Agua de Guayaba, Agua de Lima.] While this agua may not be the best for one’s health, it is certainly delicious.

One day in the shelter, I was tasked with making the agua of the day. Spefically, I was making agua de zanahoria [carrot]. I know it doesn’t sound appetizing, but it is actually pretty darn good. After slicing a ton of carrots into strips, blending them and mixing the resulting carrot liquid with a lot of water, I arrived at the most important step: adding the sugar. During my previous two attempts to make water, I had been very hesitant to add too much sugar, but this time, I wasn’t going to be as reserved.  I poured a butt-ton of sugar into the water. I was proud of myself. I had set aside my concerns for the health of everyone in the shelter, including myself, and had flavored the water like a true Mexican.

Unfortunately, my prideful thoughts were interrupted by Jacqi, saying “¿Sabes que fue sal, verdad?” [“You know that was salt, right?”] I was devastated. I grabbed the white container with the blue lid instead of that with the green lid. I couldn’t believe my careless mistake. I had ruined nearly an hour of work and a lot of carrots. Fortunately, my thoughts were once again interrupted. Jacqi and John could not contain their laughter. While I had been traumatized, they realized that it was not a big deal, and in fact, found it very funny. I immediately felt better knowing that I put a smile – albeit unintentionally – on the faces of John and Jacqi after their stressful week in the shelter.

Jacqi helped me to problem solve the situation. I added juice from a dozen oranges to the shelter, and then added the proper amount of sugar to the water. The water still tasted salty, but it was manageable. As we served the Agua de Zanahoria at mealtime, Jacqi announced to all the migrants that we had made a special electrolyte beverage, so that everyone would be hydrated for their journey. I smiled. I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective.

Getting Sick

Animals eat very well in Mexico. Well, at least the animals with which I have contact: my family’s dog, and the chickens and turkeys at the shelter. They receive whatever food is not eaten during our meals. For the turkeys and chickens this usually means fresh rice, beans and soup. For my family’s dog, usually tortillas, chicken, and caldo. As a result, I have no problem eating the same food as the animals. This is not something I usually do, but it is something I did one day in the shelter. And in these circumstances, it was not a great idea…

“Jacqi, ¿que vamos a hacer con estos totopos duros?” [“What are we going to do with these hard tortilla strips?”] I asked. We had left a number of tortillas out to harden in order to make chilaquiles, but we did not end up using all of them. “Puedes echar agua en los totopos para hacerse mas maduros, y luego podemos darlos a los gallos” [“You can put water on the tortilla strips in order to soften them so that we can feed them to the chickens later”] Jacqi replied. I proceeded to fill the pot of tortilla strips with water straight from the facet. Since I was hungry, I proceeded to eat some of the tortilla strips. Unfortunately, I did not think about the fact that these tortillas were soaking in unfiltered water.  My stomach felt better for the moment, but my carelessness would come back to bite me that night.

I spent an entire day either sleeping or on the toilet. My Mexican family was very worried about me, so they eventually decided to take me to the doctor. Luckily, mi mamá is a doctor at a nearby clinic and was on duty. My primo took me to her clinic, where I was given a suero. Suero has a few meanings. It is an electrolyte beverage, and IV, or in the state of Oaxaca, a michelada [a beer with tamarindo and other flavorings]. In this case, suero refers to an IV. The next day I felt much better, and was able to laugh at my dumb mistake. Thank God for my Mexican family.