One of the biggest Dia de los Muertos events in SoCal takes place here in Riverside.
The free downtown festival is filled with lots of ofrendas, food, art and musical performances. The 20th edition is taking place this Saturday November 4 from 1 to 10 pm.
I sat down with the festival’s organizer Cosme Cordova at Division 9 gallery to discuss the meaning of Dia de los Muertos.
This year marks 20 years for the city's Dia de los Muertos festival. Tell me what continues to make this event special for the Inland Empire?
It's brought a lot of people. It’s brought the community together. It's brought people from out of town. It has educated people about what an altar is and what Dia de los Muertos means. I mean, it's provided art history and education, music, food. It encompasses a lot under the umbrella.
What does Dia de los Muertos mean for you personally? And how does your work and your art help bring importance to this day?
Now, when I first began doing this, one of the memories that I had was of people that came up to me and said, “You know what, thank you for doing this event. I'm not able to go back to my hometown, and where I'm from. So, I'm happy that this is celebrated here.”
And, I took that opportunity. It really brought a lot of thoughts to my mind. At the same time, I wanted to educate people from different nationalities. Because, when someone passes away, it's a hard thing to go through. I mean, it took a year for me to like, find myself at a peaceful place in my mind with my brother.
But over the years, doing things for him or thinking about him during this day of Dia de los Muertos has made me realize it's important to keep people in mind. A lot of people who you love have passed away, they've somehow touched your life in education or art or the way they ate, the way they told you stories, or whatever it is.
What can folks expect if they attend the event?
We have the event on Market Street from University Avenue all the way to 14th Street. We have two stages. One stage, I keep it more traditional, like Mexican music, norteñas and people in the community can be a part of that community stage, the calaca stage. Then, we have the marigold stage, where we bring in up and coming, new musicians. But this all encompasses what people would bring to a cemetery. In Mexico, you bring the music, you bring the food, you bring the celebration, you bring the color, you bring the art. Whatever it takes to make you happy and to remember and keep that person in mind.
So what are some favorite stories that you have over the years from the festival?
To tell you one story, we had two families that created an altar, they didn't know each other. So, they were right next to each other and they started studying each other's altar. And they found out that they had a common picture, which I thought was interesting. It turned out to be a great uncle of theirs. But along the way, somehow the family separated. So they went different directions. And this event kind of brought them back together. Because they both have the same image in each of their altars. I mean, I have a lot of stories.
One story, this family came from Canada, and they just happened to be here during the day of the dead. They were staying at the Mission Inn. They visited the event and they were coming down looking at the altars and they realized, ‘Hey, where'd you get those candies?’ Because they're Canadians. ‘Oh, we have a friend that passed away. You know, and all he would eat was Canadian candies.’ So, I thought that was a really cool relation. So now that family has gone back to Canada, and they celebrate in their little home, creating an altar with their families.
How do you think the Dia de los Muertos helps people celebrate their culture and their loved ones?
By being happy yourself. And you can feel that when you go through the altars. We have over 80 altars this year at White Park. I tell people, celebrate someone, but it's not a party. It's time to remember somebody. So you know, make sure you carry somebody in your heart that day.
Cosme, thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
