How to Build an Altar to Remember the Dead

Altar makers Ofelia Esparza and Rosanna Esparza Ahrens, of East Los Angeles, created an altar in collaboration with the public during the 2019 Tucson Meet Yourself folklife festival.
Time-lapse video of altar creation, video by Adam Cooper-Terán
Home altars are one of most celebrated features of the Mexican and Latin American observance on November 2 of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). The altar bridges the world of the living and that of the dead via photographs of those who have passed on, candles, flowers, favorite foods of those being remembered, and other items to honor the ancestors. Creating and maintaining an altar is one way to acknowledge that death is truly the other side of life. Within that truth, there is room for beauty, sensory experiences, and remembrance.
My mother always told me we all suffer three deaths. The first death is when we give up our last breath, the body dies. The second death is when your body is buried or cremated, never to be seen on the face of the earth again. The third death is the most dreaded death of all, it is the day you are forgotten.”
- Ofelia Esparza, Chicana altarista and NEA National Heritage Fellow