Mesilla’s El Día de los Muertos gets the documentary treatment.
As skeleton-happy New Mexicans know, honoring departed souls is
not some eerie voyage into the macabre—in fact, it’s an annual
cause for celebration. From the somber to the festive, El Día de
los Muertos—the Day of the Dead—is an occasion for descendants
to demonstrate their love for the deceased. The event is
celebrated in ways large and small around the state, but perhaps
nowhere more fervently or on a grander scale than in Mesilla,
the mostly Hispanic town that’s part of the Las Cruces
metropolitan area. The festivities take over Mesilla’s historic
plaza November 2–4, with dozens of shrines of devotion, dances
by an Aztec dance troupe, music, and art exhibits from around
the country. “It’s the most traditional and most popular Day of
the Dead festival in southern New Mexico,” says Preciliana
Sandoval, president of the Calavera Coalition, which sponsors
the event to “keep the tradition alive of celebrating our dead.”
There are local families, s