In just a few days, Día de Muertos will come to life along the streets of Sherman Heights and surrounding communities with the annual Candlelight Procession.
The procession is one of several Día de Muertos events organized by the Sherman Heights Community Center. Staff and volunteers said these gatherings offer an important space for community members who keep the traditions alive but cannot easily travel to Mexico and other Latin American countries where the celebration has its roots.
Francisco Soto works at the community center and said all are welcome to attend.
“Everyone is invited to the procession. Anyone can participate. It doesn’t matter if you don’t live here,” Soto said.
Held on the last day of Day of the Dead celebrations on Nov. 2, the procession gives community members an opportunity to take part in the cultural tradition close to home.
Daniel Pozos, a historian and volunteer with the community center for more than 20 years, described the mood.
“There's excitement in the air,” Pozos said.“There's people waiting to see the altars, walk in community, walk with culture, and conserve the culture, right? So they feel that by showing up, they're living it.”
Residents who have homes on the route of the procession make ofrendas and display them during the event.
Some of those residents include Soto’s family who live in Sherman Heights. His family creates an outdoor altar. He said his home is known as “La casa de Chocolate,” because sometimes participants stay and his family will offer foods or drinks such as hot chocolate.
“We try to preserve the tradition as authentically as possible, within our means, since we are in a country that is not our homeland, but we are part of it,” Soto said.
Attendees walk through neighborhoods stopping at homes where they are welcomed by residents who created ofrendas as part of the event.
It begins at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park, then to the Sherman Heights Community Center, afterward to Logan Heights and ends at Chicano Park.
The origin of Día de Muertos festivities at the community center is said to go back to Señor Domingo Sandoval, a Sherman Heights resident who was known for growing cempasúchitl flowers and asked the center if he could build an ofrenda there, according to Daniela Kelly, who is the executive director of the center.
At the front of the procession you’ll find Cynthia Soto, a Sherman Heights resident, sister of Francisco Soto and a procession leader.
As a part of the walk, Soto transforms into a Catrina, which she describes as a common figure associated with Día de Muertos. On the day of the procession, she is the first to step through the route and guides all participants.
“The tradition of La Catrina began as a kind of satire of Mexican society, particularly the newer generation in Mexico. The idea is that no matter how elegant or beautiful you are, you’re still going to die,” she explained.
Also leading the way is Calpulli Mexihca, an Aztec dance group. With the ancestral sounds of conch shell trumpets, drums and more, the Aztec dancers bless the altars of the participating homes and take participants down the path.
The walk to remember loved ones who have died brings together people from different communities including residents from Tijuana as well as decorated lowrider cars and bikes, mariachi performers, university students who bring and carry their nichos (small altars), and the Fern Street Circus which included stilt-walking Catrinas last year.
Pozos notes the power of the community coming together.
"But when they see the Danza Azteca bless their homes and the people come and kind of grieve with them, then it's a community grieving," Pozos explained. "It's sharing your pain and we understand you, and we see you and we're here for support that way. And that changes everything, right? Then people start realizing, this is something sacred."
This year's procession starts at 4 p.m. on Monday Nov. 2 at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park.
