Entrance to Day of the Dead altar displays

Pancho Villa altar with live impersonator

The largest local showing of Dia de Los Muertos altars on Nov 2nd was in Chapala. According to the Guadalajara Reporter, there were over 70 altars there on display, and it took over a good portion of the main thoroughfare in town. There were altars for local performers, founding fathers, historical figures and internationally known musicians as well as well-loved local patriarch and matriach family figures and for some who lost their lives early due to unfortunate circumstances. My guess is that there were a couple thousand people in the area for this event, with perhaps only about 100 of them Gringos.

Another place I saw a distictive altar for the Dia de los Muertos celebration was at the Feria Maestros del Arte. In my next post I'll have the photo of a table set up at that event to commemorate the deaths of 43 students in Guererro. President Pena Nieto has come under fire for his lack of effectiveness in dealing with the tragedy which spurred thousands to march in many cities in Mexico and elsewhere. The similarities to marches happening in the US at this time are notable. All of these have been spurred by murders of people (many of them children or young people) at the hands of, or with the help of, those in positions that are expected to be protectors. In the case of the Mexican students, there is a great deal of evidence that points to the mayor of the town where their school is providing assistance to drug cartel members to allow the mass-killing to occur.