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Day of Dead market is a traditional family affair
Photograph by :
Colorful cardboard dolls from Michoacan are on sale at the Morelos Park market.
Story by : Megan Smith
For decades, families have been coming to the Day of the Dead
market in downtown Guadalajara’s Parque Morelos to purchase materials
for Day of the Dead altars.
“I’ve come here every year since I was born I think,” said Columba Bautista Benitez, 65.
Shopping at the market with Columba this week were her sister,
daughter, nephew and two of her grandchildren. After buying sweets and
wooden toys, she enjoyed a bowl of pozole and said the market is
important because, “We need to keep teaching the children our
traditions.”
The market fills the sidewalks around the perimeter of the park from
mid-October until mid-November. Around 80 vendors sell pan de muertos
(special bread), papel picado, papier-mâché dolls, clay miniatures
depicting of all manner of food, and the iconic molded skulls made of
almond-flavored sugar paste.
Family traditions persist at the market, commonly referred to as the
Feria del Carton. Many vendors recall helping their grandparents work
at the market as children. Jose Miguel Zambrano Perez and his wife
inherited their large stall from his grandmother. He said his family
has sold crafts there every October for over 70 years. Everyone in the
family helps prepare items for sale at the market. They all hold
regular jobs for the rest of the year but contribute time overseeing
the stall for the month before Day of the Dead.
Traditions now collide as Halloween masks and grinning sugar candy skeletons rub shoulders at many of the stalls.
“The altar tradition is being lost,” remarked Paula Montaño, 25,
lamenting the changes that Halloween has brought to the stall her
grandparents passed on to her. Her decision to stock plastic masks and
polyester costumes, she stressed, was in response to customer requests.
Crafts from surrounding states are sold at Parque Morelos as well –
papier-mâché dolls and toys from Michoacan, ceramics from Guanajuato.
Alfonso Moreno Aguilar and his sons have been hauling ovens from
Tlaxcala across the country for 20 years to sell freshly baked pan de
muerto.
Pedro Fuentes Toros has brought in his family’s black-glazed ceramic
candleholders from Santa Fe de la Laguna, Michoacan for two decades. He
said nearby Patzcuaro is too crowded with vendors on this holiday and
prefers selling in Guadalajara, sleeping in his booth every night, and
watching over his neighbors’ stalls.
“The Feria is a way of preserving customs,” said Sandra Cuadros, who
came to the market to buy sugar skulls. She began coming here with her
grandmother when she was five and now brings her younger sisters and
brothers. “You can find lots of things here and it is very traditional.”
The Day of the Dead market is located at Calzada Independencia Norte
and Juan Manuel and is open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily until
November 15. |
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