celebrating Dia de Muertos in Oaxaca leaves me breathless
For the second year, celebrating Dia de Muertos in Oaxaca leaves me breathless, awed, smiling, and crying that something so exquisite can be expressed by human beings.
I know it’s not effortless, but the Oaxacaños make it look so natural, so deeply organic to welcome their ancestors back into their physical presence — one can’t help but be deeply moved.
I will never cease to wonder at the way Catholicism was subsumed by the ancient Zapotec traditions to manifest something both personal and universal, beautiful and hideous, mournful and ecstatic.
The dead who were among us and the dead we will become walk together in these gardens of light. When the living give over their bodies so that the dead can enjoy the pleasures of the flesh, the curtain between the two worlds falls, and we remember who we are.
Thank you Monserrat for hosting us again, for your warmth and commitment to Oaxaca. We love it here so much.
