Dia de los Muertos in Questa
Tuesday, November 1, 4 – 7 pm
OCHO Art + Event Space, #8 Hwy. 38, Questa, NM (parking across street)
Free – Donations welcome
More Info or to volunteer: Gaea McGahee, gaea.mcgahee@gmail.com, (575)224-2102
All are invited to join in Questa’s second annual collaborative Dia de los Muertos celebration, featuring artwork by Questa Junior and Senior High School students. Enjoy art and activities, Aztec dancers at 5pm, followed by a feast, then mariachi music. Community members will contribute posole, prune pies, hot chocolate, atole, apples, local cider, and the Questa Junior-Senior High School culinary arts students will make “pan de muerto.” At 6:30, Questa Mariachi students will perform in a candlelit gallery to close our festive evening with La Llorona.
Dia de los Muertos is a time to honor our loved ones and ancestors with ritual and celebration and gather the living in these observances. With intertwining cultural roots it combines Spanish, Aztec, and even earlier indigenous traditions. It is a time to remember the dead with celebration, bright colors, and food with strong flavors; this may explain why Day of the Dead has spread across the world. This ritual offers a container for our feelings of sorrow at the death of our beloveds. And by treating the eventuality with humor, we recognize we are all sojourners; some are simply further ahead.
Dia de Los Muertos in Questa explores traditional activities and innovative elements centered around community and art. Supplies and instructions will be provided for decorating sugar skulls, writing calaveras or “memory poems,” making paper marigolds, and colorful prints with traditional imagery. These items can adorn altars or be taken home. Guests on the evening of Nov 1st may bring photos of loved ones or objects to add to a community altar. A pet altar will be created to honor animal friends. Items can be brought ahead of time to the OCHO gallery, which will be open on Oct 29th and 30th.
The event will also feature calavera face painting for all ages with Peggy Trigg, printmaking with Joan Long, and writing letters to the dead at “The Dead Letter Office” with author and teacher, Annie Mattingley. (The Saturday prior to the event (Oct. 29th) Mattingley will lead the “Writing Letters to the Dead” workshop, 2 – 4 pm at OCHO. Suggested donation to OCHO $5. For more information or to sign up for the workshop, contact author and teacher, Annie Mattingley at (575) 586-1792.)
Dia de los Muertos in Questa Schedule, Tuesday, November 1, 4-7 pm:
4 – 6:30 pm Activities and Constructing Altars/Ofrendas
5 pm Aztec Dancers
5:30 pm Feasting
6:30-7pm Music / Candle Lighting
Coordinated by Gaea McGahee, the collaborative event is the collective effort of LEAP (LeapSite.org), OCHO (OchoZone.org), Questa Junior-Senior High School students and teachers as well as community volunteers. The event is made possible by funding from the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area Fund, Chevron Questa Mine Community Fund, Questa Economic Development Fund as well as individual donations and many in-kind contributions and volunteers.
LEAP 