Day Of The Dead Festival Makes Global Connections

The Annual Day of The Dead (Dia de Los Muertos) holiday festival was alive and well Saturday evening in Fair Haven, as a parade of giant skeletal puppets and the passionate people who carried them launched from Bregamos Community Theater to wend their way around city blocks in a cacophony, of blaring horns, cheers, and live marching music.

A fiery glow over the New Haven skyline at dusk and mild November temperatures set the mood for a parade of celebrants, many remembering their Mexican roots with a tradition that honors, celebrates, and seeks connection with departed souls and loved ones.

Leading the parade, a sleek three-wheeler bearing a giant bloody skull was also draped with a Mexican flag.

An enormous, fiery bird whose wing span took up two lanes seemed to catch the eye of people plastered in a city bus advertisement.

The dead were remembered by way of a banner proclaiming ​“Viva La Memoria” …

… and the lively music-making of a marching band.

At the end of the parade, the Unique Rollers, a club of vintage low rider automobiles bounced and shimmied at slow speeds …

Families and streams of young people marched over several city blocks as they returned to Bregamos Community Theater, where puppets were neatly stacked in place to be saved and resurrected for another day of remembrance. A long line quickly formed to enter the celebration in Bregamos Theater where other important traditions awaited.

Inside the theater, a large memorial altar contained foods, offerings and memorabilia. A large paper kite made of tissue paper by artist Pedro Lopez, served as a backdrop, its colorful butterflies and skulls an homage to the migrants who ​“didn’t make it across the border, that didn’t make it to this country trying to live the American dream.”

Among the photos placed neatly between flower vases and decorated skulls were images of Trayvon Martin and other African- Americans whose life journeys were cut short, sparking a national debate about gun violence, police overreach, and racism.

At one end of the theater, servers were busy dishing out Spanish soul food to a crowd hungry after its festive march.

Representatives of New Haven Workers Association — Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA), a grassroots organization that defends the human rights of immigrants and workers in Greater New Haven, spoke briefly about the plight of the land defenders and the 122 workers killed last year in Latino-América, most of them defending indigenous lands from mining companies. Solidarity was also shown with the native American tribes protesting the path of a pipeline across sacred burial grounds and the Missouri River, which is the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Presentations of green cards (lawful permanent resident cards) were presented to several young people, who have successfully migrated to the US and found new homes and families in the United States. ULA member, Megan Fountain, interpreted from Spanish to English.

Two large bands kept celebrants on their feet beginning with Jarana Beat, a band from New York that features a blend of Afro-Mexican rhythms …

… and finishing with the Cumbia sounds of local band Los Chavos de Fuego.

By all accounts, this year’s Day of the Dead festival during such a highly charged political season, and with so much at stake for the Mexican and broader Latino communities, was a welcomed respite, a time to pause and look back while keeping a sharp eye on future developments.