Uptown Saint John Celebrates Dia De Los Muertos
SAINT JOHN — A traditional Mexican celebration will hit the streets of Uptown Saint John this weekend, and everyone is welcome to participate.
Dia De Los Muertos Saint John will make its inaugural run on October 29, starting at 6 p.m. and running into the night, with visual artists, music, dance, and fire.
There will be ballet performances, fire dancers, art installations, a food truck, and a DJ in the later part of the open-air street festival on Grannan Street.
“Dia De Los Muertos is a traditional Mexican festival that celebrates arts, culture, and community — and that’s exactly what we want to bring here,” says Fabiola Martinez, art director of the festival.
“By honouring those that have come before us. It’s a day to be happy and celebrate their lives. To celebrate the good memories, the good moments. To play music they used to hear, the food they used to enjoy, you know all those things, those positive things.”
“We can enjoy those positive experiences and we can celebrate them by doing it.”
Originally from Queretaro Mexico, Martinez is a visual artist who’s been living in the Saint John area since 2007.
When she started putting on workshops at her studio marking the famous celebration, she noticed there was a lot of interest and excitement about the Dia De Los Muertos festival. That led her to kick-start a family-friendly celebration.
One of the most well-known representations of the celebration is La Calavera Catrina, a satirical caricature from more than 100 years ago, of the futility of lavish clothing and expensive decoration, reconsidering class, and societal expectations.
“People dress up. They put their hats on, and they put these big ornaments on their heads, and they put on the makeup, and dress up,” she says of people imitating Catrina, who is a character created in the early 1900s by the Mexican lithographer and political cartoonist Jose Guadalupe Posada.
“It’s a social satire,” she explains. “It doesn’t matter who you are. Your skin tone or color, your social status. Whatever you do, we are all going to die. So that’s how it started. And then, of course, it became an icon.”
In honour of this character, there will be a Catrina competition where the winner will be featured as the face of next year’s Dia De Los Muertos Saint John festival. Advance registration is required.
A temporary public art installation, ALTAR, will be up along Grannan Street featuring works from artists from the region, the province, and beyond including Sheryl Crowley, Cassandra Ida Rebecca, and Martinez herself. Twenty-five percent of the art sales will go towards the Stone Church Conservation Project.
“We have like around eight different artists, visual artists, as a part of the ALTAR installation. The altar is another element of the Los Muertos festival because this is where we put the things to honour and remember the people who passed away.”
One of the traditional items are marigold flowers which are supposed to connect the living with the dead by their smell. They are called Cempasúchil, in Aztec or Flor de Muertos, in Spanish. They will be one of the important items featured in the ALTAR installation.
“Each artist is going to express the connection to the Day of the Dead. It’s an experience of life and death of people residing in the same land. The art pieces are inspired by New Brunswick, having a little bit of taste of the day of the dead.”
Dia De Los Muertos is not the only Latin-themed event happening in Uptown Saint John on the 29th. Latin American heritage month celebrations will be taking place in the Atrium at Market Square from 1-5 pm including dance and a costume showcase.
“We want to embrace the heritage of the city, we want people to feel proud of what we have,” says Martinez. “Part of it is just having this connection with our own heritage and embracing heritage from other cultures. I think it’s a gift to live in a multicultural place. It makes Canada a very special place to live.”
Alex Graham is a Huddle reporter in Saint John. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].