Day of the Dead: The Journey Home

[ "Dia de los Muertos" Oil on wood panel. Mark Vallen 2003. ]

I’m a participating artist in Dia de los Muertos: The Journey Home, the nineteenth annual Day of the Dead exhibition at Chicago’s Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum. I’m honored that the institution chose to exhibit my oil painting in its group show of forty artists from across the U.S. and Mexico. This is the nation’s biggest Day of the Dead art exhibition, and it’s being held in the largest Latino arts institution in the country. The museum sees Mexican culture as "sin fronteras" (without borders), and so presents works by artists from both sides of the border. With more than a million and a half Chicanos/Mexicanos in the Chicago area, the museum has been the cultural heart for that community since its founding in 1982. However, since its inauguration the institution has become a world class museum. In 1990 it presented the very last solo exhibition that famed Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo would hold in his lifetime, and in 1992 the museum signed a historic sister-museum agreement with El Museo del Templo Mayor (the fabulous archeological museum in Mexico City that holds all artifacts from the main Aztec Temple).

It was originally the indigenous people of Mexico who honored the dead through ritual celebrations. The Aztec held festivals of the dead that were presided over by the Queen of the underworld, Mictecacihuatl (Lady of the Dead). During these celebrations music, dance, flowers and special foods were offered to the deceased. After the conquest of Mexico by the Conquistadors, Spanish priests found that they could not eradicate the religious practices of the subjugated Aztecs - so they attempted to co-opt them. The church moved the date when the Indians celebrated the dead (late July and early August), to coincide with the Catholic Día de Todos Santos, or All Saints Day (celebrated during the first two days of November.) Despite the Spanish attempt to transform the pagan carnival into a Christian observance, the festival retained much of its original indigenous character - even to this day. In the late 1960’s the holiday became popular in the American southwest as part of a growing self-awareness on the part of Mexican Americans. Today it is celebrated by Chicanos and Mexicano wherever you might find them - and its enchanting appeal continues to attract new adherents.

In keeping with the traditions of the holiday, and as part of The Journey Home exhibit, a number of artists have been invited by the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum to build elaborate decorative shrines that honor the deceased. On this occasion the alters will pay homage to three artists from Chicago who passed away this year: Allen Stringfellow, Ed Paschke, and Carlos Cortéz (who donated his collection of artworks and personal papers to the museum). Dia de los Muertos: The Journey Home runs from September 23rd, 2005 until December 11th, 2005. The museum is located at 1852, West 19th Street, Chicago Illinois 60608. Admission is free. For more information, visit the museum's website.