Members of El Teatro Campesino, the theater troupe in San Juan Bautista, were bustling around the Fourth Street playhouse Wednesday morning in preparation for the annual Day of the Dead celebration Friday through Sunday.
As in past years, members of the theater and the community were invited to create altars in honor of dead loved ones. The Dia de Los Muertos celebration, as it is known in Mexico, coincides with All Soul’s Day, a Catholic holiday. The altars on display at El Teatro mixes the traditional Mexican imagery such as skulls, skeletons and marigolds with Catholic religious items such as rosary beads and candles with pictures of saints on them.
While tickets are sold out for the four-weekend performances at El Teatro’s Playhouse by dance troupe Esperanza del Valle of “Magia y Color,” local residents are invited on Saturday to participate in family-friendly activities from 4 to 7 p.m., in front of the theater at 705 Fourth St. in San Juan. In past years, there has been a procession from the Old Mission San Juan Bautista to the theater before an evening performance, but the afternoon activities will take its place this year with the procession expected to return in 2013.
Rosa Escalante, who recently retired from teaching at R.O. Hardin School in Hollister, took on the responsibility of organizing the altars and volunteers for the family activities. She said she became involved with the San Juan theater when she was a college student in one of theater founder Luis Valdez’s classes at the University of California, Berkeley. She’s been involved for 40 years, but increased her presence since retiring, she said.
On Wednesday morning, she had collected some marigolds, pumpkins and corn husks to add to the community altar that will greet visitors when they arrive at the theater for the weekend performances. She explained that the community altars honor many different people – with photos, mementos and flowers – while some of the other altars on display were made by people to recognize one individual or family member. The community altar has photos of theater members who have passed away.
“We invite people to come bring something in,” Escalante said.
Lupe Valdez, Luis Valdez’s wife, put together an altar in honor of the people who had passed away on both sides of the family. Marilyn Abad-Cardinalli, a member of El Teatro and professor at Gavilan College, also created an altar that honors her family from the Philippines along with her in-laws from Monterey. She used images from the ocean to show the connection between the two families, with photographs of those who have died.
Carlos Cortez, who is acting in El Teatro’s Christmas production of “La Virgen del Tepeyac,” said he and his friends decided to use one of the altar spaces as an art piece. Rodrigo Reyes, his friend, had a piece of art that served as the centerpiece of their display – a piece he said reflects life and death. They worked on how to best arrange a mix of skulls, ceramic tiles, dried flowers and seashells.
“I’ve done the altar for relatives before, but this time we wanted to go more artsy,” he said.
