In the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, Estela Camacho is unpacking framed photographs of deceased family members. She’s not just taking them out of a black bin. Camacho said she’s waking them up.
“They’ve been asleep for a whole year. Now, it’s time to put them on the ofrenda,” Camacho said.
An ofrenda is an altar that honors loved ones that have died. The tabletop display is often created at home, but Camacho is creating one for a Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Community Celebration at the museum. She brings out photos of her parents, her maternal grandparents, her aunt and uncle, her three siblings, and her three pets, her dogs Sky and Toby and her cat Marco.
Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 are the days when Día de los Muertos is typically celebrated. It's a time of remembrance that is observed primarily in Mexico or by people of Mexican descent.
“It’s a day of not necessarily that you're celebrating that they're gone or they're dead, but that you're really celebrating their journey back, that you're remembering who they are and what they offered,” Camacho said.
People celebrate in various ways. Some visit the cemetery to bring their loved ones food or homemade wreaths. Some go to parades that are held in Mexico where people dress as skeletons on stilts or as La Catrina, a famous Día de los Muertos figure.
One of the most well-known traditions, though, is the ofrenda where people will place portraits of their loved ones along with some of their old belongings or items that remind the family of that person.
Ofrendas also traditionally have different items to welcome the spirits of their loved ones when they come to visit their living relatives.
“For instance, food. Some people do put food in the ofrendas. Some believe that the spirits come and they eat some of the food,” Camacho said.
Since she can’t have real food at the museum, Camacho added fake food to symbolize what she would feed her family members, like her father’s favorite pan dulce, or Mexican sweet bread, and a bowl of red chili peppers for her mother who loved to cook.
Camacho said she also added to her ofrenda an arch of plastic marigolds to symbolize the aroma that would help guide the spirits to the altar, a pile of salt to purify their journey so their spirits don’t get stuck somewhere, and a glass of water to quench their thirst when they arrive.
Ofrendas can vary drastically in size, from a single table to a multi-tiered display, so it can sometimes be a family affair to put one together. Camacho, however, wanted to create this one on her own.
“I have kids that live close [by]. My son goes to UConn. My daughter lives in Hartford, but it's like, this is me,” Camacho said. “This is my time with them, and so I appreciate them.”
Remembering
As Camacho started to put her ofrenda together, she put on a regional Mexican ballad called "Rinconcito en el Cielo" on her cellphone. Camacho said her father Francisco used to play this song all the time.
“Me and my siblings would be like, ‘Oh my gosh, here's that song again.’ But now, when we hear it, it just brings back a lot of memories,” Camacho said.
Camacho recalled many memories as she arranged the items on her ofrenda. One was a bottle of English Leather cologne that she placed next to a portrait of her father.
“My dad used to love wearing this perfume,” Camacho said. “He would put [on] way too much, like we could smell it from afar, but nevertheless, he loved it. Every now and then I do get that smell, especially when I'm by myself. I don't know if it's because I actually smell it or because I want to smell it.”
Camacho remembered her mother Francisca, who always expected to hear how better her cooking was compared to others. She also honored her uncle Martin and aunt Petra, who took care of her when her mother couldn’t, and her three siblings, Isaias, Maria and Jose, who she called Joe.
“My brother, Joe, was always dressed in a cowboy hat and a cowboy shirt,” Camacho said. Her family lived in El Paso, Texas when she was growing up. That’s why she wore black cowboy boots while she was building the ofrenda.
Next to the portrait of Joe, she placed a framed piece of paper with a handwritten poem.
“It was not the norm where [my parents] would keep things that we would do at school, but my brother, Joe, he did write this poem. That was really the only poem that my parents kept,” Camacho said.
Though the vast majority of the ofrenda represents her family members, Camacho brings a bit of herself and her Jewish identity to the table with a yahrzeit candle, or a Jewish memorial candle.
“When I say a prayer, I say it in Spanish, but I can also say it in Hebrew and it's a Mourner's Kaddish,” Camacho said. “It reminds me that, yes, there's death, but there's also God, right? ... Even though I've lost family that I miss, it still keeps me grounded … Thanks to him, I'm able to do something like this.”
Catholic imagery is usually what you’ll find on ofrendas, given that nearly 80% of Mexicans identify as Roman Catholic, but given how personal ofrendas can be, Camacho said anybody can really participate in the tradition.
“If somebody else from a different culture wants to do that, I think it's beautiful,” Camacho said.
However, Camacho said it’s important that those who are interested in having an ofrenda do so to honor their deceased loved ones and not as a trend. That means doing research to learn about the tradition.
“One of my friends, she had a picture of herself and her dog. And I said, you know, typically on ofrendas — this is just what I perceive — it's for the deceased. So sometimes it's guiding. I share what I learned,” Camacho said.
It’s never too late to start, Camacho said. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate display. It can just be a shelf that honors the memory of loved ones.
Learn more
The Connecticut Museum of Culture and History is holding its Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Community Celebration on Saturday, Nov. 1 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The museum will have a community ofrenda where people can add their own photographs or momentos of deceased relatives. The museum will not be returning the photos and objects, so it is recommended that whatever is brought is not precious or irreplaceable.
Camacho’s ofrenda will be on display through Nov. 8. She is the president of the Mexican Cultural Center in Danbury.
