Por LO Colorado

Latino Outdoors Colorado is excited to bring Día de Muertos to Movement Boulder from Monday, 10/31 to Wednesday, 11/2. We want to kick off this celebration by doing some learning on who we are, what the holiday is and what it means to us to celebrate this with the greater climbing community.

Latino Outdoors
Latino Outdoors is an organization that inspires, connects, and engages the Latine/x community in the outdoors. We embrace culture and family as part of the outdoor narrative, ensuring that our history, heritage, and leadership are valued and represented.

The Colorado chapter of Latino Outdoors started in 2016 and our chapter’s volunteers consist of climbers, anglers, hikers, backpackers, environmental and wildlife advocates, and so much more. The majority of the events that we host are beginner, youth, and family friendly and always free to attend. As a chapter, we value providing to our community lasting access to experiences in the outdoors and having a volunteer cohort that represents the various possibilities of what it means to be a leader in the outdoors.

What is Día de Muertos?
Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead is primarily a Mexican holiday, but many Latin American and non-Latin American communities celebrate this or similar holidays. Some of those countries include Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Haiti, Philippines, Brazil, and Costa Rica. Día de Muertos is a time to honor, remember, and temporarily welcome back our loved ones who have passed away and it is a celebration that has come about from the blending of Mexica (or Aztec) tradition and the colonial influence of Spanish Catholicism.

For Día de Muertos, we guide our loved ones back to us with the use of an ofrenda or an altar. The ofrenda is meant to guide the dead back to the living, but also gives the living relative a chance to build a memorial to honor their loved one that has passed. All ofrendas will be unique and different, but there are some traditional elements of the ofrenda that are often expressed. The ofrenda should represent the four elements: fire, wind, earth, and water. Fire usually takes the shape of a candle that guides our loved one to our ofrenda. Papel picado, a thin and colorful sheet of paper, represents wind and will move as the loved one returns. Earth will typically be food that your loved one enjoyed or the traditional pan de muerto, a pan dulce that represents death by taking the shape of bones and a tear to represent sorrow. Water can be represented by actual water or another drink that will quench the loved one’s thirst after the long journey to the living. Other important items include cempazúchitl or marigolds, copal incense, and calaveras or sugar skulls.

The duration of Día de Muertos varies depending on where you are celebrating and who you are welcoming back. Typically, you have your ofrenda ready for loved ones by October 31st so they can find your ofrenda and then it continues to be celebrated throughout the 1st and 2nd of November.

Steven Ochoa, a volunteer with Latino Outdoors, shares what the celebration means to him:

“Día de los Muertos to me is a celebration of life based in duality. The ceramic calaveras (sugar skulls) on my altares (altar) each represent a person that has transitioned to mictlan. Mictlan is a Nahuatl word that translates to “the land of the dead,” (composed of the words miqui meaning to die, and tlan meaning place of). Mictlan is not equivalent to afterlife in western religions, rather it is a continuation of life in a different plane of existence. Día de los Muertos is the one time per year that loved ones can cross back to our realm from Mictlan, and as such we build altars for them to find their way to us. The ofrenda consists of their favorite foods, drinks, and anything else that brought them joy on this side of existence. These elaborate creations are absolutely works of art that inspire and should move you, but they are not backdrops. In my personal experience, I am okay with people taking pictures of my ofrenda, but I am not okay with someone posing in front of them. I believe my loved ones are present at my ofrenda at all times, and it is disrespectful for someone to use my loved ones as a backdrop. 

It has been important for myself to reach spiritual nepantla, meaning the spiritual middle where I have been able to embrace the best parts of what I’ve been taught and the indigeneity I aspire to reclaim. So I invite everyone to be moved and to take pictures of my personal ofrenda respectfully with the knowledge you are taking a picture of my father, grandmother, cousin, and best friends.

I end with a translated quote from Octavio Paz’s Labyrinth of Solitude that best captures the essence of Día de los Muertos amongst Mexicans: “The Mexican does not fear death. The Mexican jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it. It is one of their favorite toys and their most steadfast love.”

Movement Boulder Celebration

We feel it is important to bring this celebration to the broader climbing community, as death is something that we deal with too often in this activity. By sharing our cultural practices with you, we hope to provide a space where death and grief are acknowledged. A place where our loved ones that have passed are celebrated, honored, and guided back to our reality.

On the morning of October 31st, Latino Outdoors volunteers will be setting up a community ofrenda that will be available to climbers at Movement to contribute to. On November 1st, we will be tabling at the gym so you all can learn more about our work and ask any questions you may have about the holiday. On November 2nd, we will be hosting an event for our Latine/x community and will be around the gym if you would like to connect with us. After our event on the 2nd, we will be taking down the ofrenda.

We invite you to contribute to the ofrenda by bringing pictures of your loved ones and any food, drink, or objects that honor their lives.