How Chicano Artists Turned Día de los Muertos Into a US Movement That Redefined Identity
Día de los Muertos is an important holiday for Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. While the holiday is celebrated around Latin America, and by people all over the world, the celebration is most closely connected to Mexican culture. In the 1970s, Chicano artists and activists worked to bring it to the United States as a form of resistance and shared culture. Since then, it has turned into an important part of American holidays and observances.
Día de los Muertos in the United States can be traced back to Chicano artists
Día de los Muertos wasn’t always the widely celebrated holiday that we know in the United States. It was in 1974 that a collection of Chicano artists and activists came together in East Los Angeles to stage a public celebration. The artists and activists used the holiday to build a new Chicano identity, focused on their indigenous roots.
Self Help Graphics & Art, a nonprofit in East Los Angeles, sponsored the first event. According to the nonprofit’s website, the event helped to achieve three goals for the organization. It helped to educate East Los Angeles residents about their heritage and culture. The event introduced people to the process of art through culture. The holiday also helped to create a stronger and more cultural community.
Demand for the event was so big the following year that Self Help Graphics & Art sponsored it the following year. According to the Self Help Graphics & Art website, the annual celebration received support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The East Los Angeles Día de los Muertos celebration continued to grow and inspired other groups to promote the holiday.
The artists and activists are credited with popularizing the holiday
Before the 1970s, Día de los Muertos was almost exclusively celebrated in Latin America. There weren’t large-scale celebrations in the U.S. to mark the holiday. The public holiday observation did more than bring a fun holiday to Eat Los Angeles. The first public celebration started a cultural movement of people celebrating.
The original event in East Los Angeles blended both the indigenous roots of the holiday with the political nature of the Chicano movement. The first celebration had a parade that led to a cemetery with an ofrenda in honor of those killed in gang violence.
Soon, there were celebrations in major cities across the country. The mission of the original public Día de los Muertos celebration achieved its dream of creating a community rooted in heritage. Importantly, Día de los Muertos in the U.S. has been pivotal in sharing Chicano art.
“Chicano artists had everything to do with making it popular,” Lalo Alcaraz told Yes! Magazine. “It only took 40 to 50 years. But that’s how culture works, and then all of a sudden, boom! It explodes, and there’s Día de los Muertos in every corner.”
The holiday’s popularity continues to grow. In 2015, “Spectre” opened with a Día de los Muertos parade in Mexico City. No such parade existed, but the film inspired Mexico City to host its first official parade in 2016. The Disney movie “Coco” became a global phenomenon in 2017. Since then, the holiday has continued to grow in popularity with more public observances happening in cities across the country.
