Fidelina Romero worries that many of her students don’t know much about Dia de los Muertos.
“Their parents sometimes don’t really teach them about it,” said Romero, a Spanish teacher at Fairfax High School. “It’s part of their culture.”
That’s why she brought around 25 of her students on a field trip to Gloria Molina Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday to see the ofrendas, or altars, throughout the park.
“We wanted to expose the students to the culture because not a lot of them know about this place,” Romero said.
The park features 19 altars carefully curated by local artists to memorialize deceased family members, celebrities and pets. A 20th ofrenda, called the community altar, honors the victims of gun violence in Monterey Park and those who died in the Maui wildfires in August. Community members are encouraged to add photos of deceased loved ones to the community altar.
Although the exhibit opened to the public on Oct. 21, the park’s marketing manager, Crista Campos, said most of the foot traffic comes during the final two days of the event on Nov. 1 and 2 – the official Dia de los Muertos.
“This has been a tradition for the park to bring communities together and celebrate a tradition that is known for Mexican culture,” Campos said, noting that 2023 marks the 12th year the park has put on the event.
Beyond just attracting Angelenos, the ofrendas also brought in visitors from different cities and states, including partners John Curtis and Elizabeth Fox from Seattle.
Fox, who lost her father and younger brother this past year, said she enjoyed reflecting on their memories in a positive light, as Dia de los Muertos is traditionally meant to be a celebration of life, rather than a lamentation of the dead.
“Death can be such an overpowering emotion and experience,” Fox said. “I really enjoy sharing it with other people in a festive way and just being a little lighter on the thought of death.”
Curtis, whose late father grew up in L.A., said he frequently thinks of his father and enjoyed celebrating him at the Grand Park event.
For visitor Jennifer Patton, whose family is from Honduras, she came to the park Wednesday morning to visit the ofrenda dedicated to deceased pets in honor of her dog that she had for 12 years. The ofrenda included a rainbow bridge that symbolizes helping the animals’ spirits pass over to a better place after they die.
“When you think of grief, it’s the love that you didn’t get to share when they were here,” Patton said. “There’s a really beautiful aspect of people getting to express that love even if they’re not here physically because you have that sense of them being here spiritually.”
Dia de los Muertos festivities will continue throughout Los Angeles in the coming days on Olvera Street, including face painting, community altars on display, entertainment and a nightly procession.