Growing up in South Texas, Kiko Torres saw the Day of the Dead as an obscure holiday celebrated in southern Mexico. Few people dared to discuss it in his small but strong Catholic, Mexican-American community.<\/p>\n
Still, Torres said he became fascinated by Day of the Dead folk art and ceremonies he saw during his father\u2019s research trips to Mexico. Those images of dancing skeleton figurines and the event\u2019s spiritual messages of honoring the dead, he said, were misunderstood in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople here thought it was something to be scared of or evil,\u201d said Torres.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s changing. In the last decade or so, this traditional Latin American holiday with indigenous roots has spread throughout the U.S. along with migration from Mexico and other countries where it is observed. Not only are U.S.-born Latinos adopting the Day of the Dead, but various underground and artistic non-Latino groups have begun to mark the Nov. 1-2 holidays through colorful celebrations, parades, exhibits and even bike rides and mixed martial arts fights.<\/p>\n
In Houston, artists hold a \u201cDay of the Dead Rock Stars\u201d where they pay homage to departed singers like Joey Ramone, Johnny Cash and even \u201cEl Marvin Gaye.\u201d Community centers in Los Angeles build altars for rapper Tupac Shakur and Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s everywhere now,\u201d said Carlos Hernandez, 49, a Houston-based artist who launched the \u201cDay of the Dead Rock Stars\u201d event. \u201cYou can even get Dia de los Muertos stuff at Wal-Mart.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, honors departed souls of loved ones who are welcomed back for a few intimate hours. At burial sites or intricately built altars, photos of loved ones are centered on skeleton figurines, bright decorations, candles, candy and other offerings such as the favorite foods of the departed. Pre-Columbian in origin, many of the themes and rituals now are mixtures of indigenous practices and Roman Catholicism.<\/p>\n
The holiday is celebrated in Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil and parts of Ecuador.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Read more. <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A popular holiday \u00a0is gaining a foothold in the United States. Details: Growing up in South Texas, Kiko Torres saw the Day of the Dead as an obscure holiday celebrated in southern Mexico. Few people dared to discuss it in his small but strong Catholic, Mexican-American community. Still, Torres said he became fascinated by Day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[916,517,572],"class_list":["post-7954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-people-in-the-pews","tag-day-of-the-dead","tag-latin-america","tag-mexico"],"yoast_head":"\n
More people plan to live it up on the Day of the Dead<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A popular holiday \u00a0is gaining a foothold in the United States. Details: Growing up in South Texas, Kiko Torres saw the Day of the Dead as an obscure\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"More people plan to live it up on the Day of the Dead\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A popular holiday \u00a0is gaining a foothold in the United States. Details: Growing up in South Texas, Kiko Torres saw the Day of the Dead as an obscure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-19T18:06:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-30T21:36:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/files\/2011\/10\/day2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/\",\"name\":\"More people plan to live it up on the Day of the Dead\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-19T18:06:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-30T21:36:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\"},\"description\":\"A popular holiday \u00a0is gaining a foothold in the United States. Details: Growing up in South Texas, Kiko Torres saw the Day of the Dead as an obscure\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"More people plan to live it up on the Day of the Dead\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\",\"name\":\"The Deacon's Bench\",\"description\":\"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\",\"name\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"More people plan to live it up on the Day of the Dead","description":"A popular holiday \u00a0is gaining a foothold in the United States. Details: Growing up in South Texas, Kiko Torres saw the Day of the Dead as an obscure","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"More people plan to live it up on the Day of the Dead","og_description":"A popular holiday \u00a0is gaining a foothold in the United States. Details: Growing up in South Texas, Kiko Torres saw the Day of the Dead as an obscure","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2011-10-19T18:06:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-09-30T21:36:14+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/files\/2011\/10\/day2.jpg"}],"author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deacon Greg Kandra","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/","name":"More people plan to live it up on the Day of the Dead","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-10-19T18:06:04+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-30T21:36:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970"},"description":"A popular holiday \u00a0is gaining a foothold in the United States. Details: Growing up in South Texas, Kiko Torres saw the Day of the Dead as an obscure","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/more-people-plan-to-live-it-up-on-the-day-of-the-dead\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"More people plan to live it up on the Day of the Dead"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/56\/2011\/10\/day2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n