- Ofelia Esparaza: We all suffer three deaths.
The first death is the day that we give our last breath,
the day that we die.
Our second death is the day that we are buried,
never to be seen on the face of the earth again.
And our third death, the most dreaded death of all,
is to be forgotten.
And that's why I do this.
The big ones can go down the middle
cause it'll occupy more space.
- Woman In Blue: I'll open more of these.
- Ofelia: The work that I do today is building altars
for Dia de los Muertos.
- Elena: How's that, Mom?
- One of my friends coined this title on me, "altarista,"
so I've been called an altarista all these years.
An altar for me is a beautiful way
of celebrating the dead.
The process of remembering and gathering items for the altar,
it's like a prayer,
but it's also a release.
Making flowers is a tradition in my family.
My mother was quite talented artisan,
and so, I learned early.
My mother came from a small village in Mexico,
and she brought her traditions.
She was very adamant actually
for me to learn about my ancestors, my family.
She really wanted me to carry on,
not so much doing altars like I do today,
but to carry on the tradition of remembering,
and it ties in with what I do today with Dia de los Muertos.
For Day of the Dead, we don't celebrate death,
we celebrate life.
We invite the souls to come and visit us.
- I am making the arch or the arco.
When we fill the archway with paper flowers,
it becomes the doorway for the souls
to find their way back to us.
Look at how many hands have to go through
and open up these flowers.
Our energy that we pour into it
becomes the drawing for our ancestors and our loved ones
to find us.
- Ofelia: For Day of the Dead, we would go to the cemetery
at the outskirts of East Los Angeles.
My aunts and my mother would decorate an altar
with something very simple,
and then would call us to come and eat the meal
they had brought with them.
I'm going to put this big one in the middle,
cause it's too big.
Dia de los Muertos was not celebrated publicly
in a big party, like it is today.
This public celebration actually began
at Self Help Graphics.
- Linda Vallejo: Self Help Graphics was one of the very first organizations
to ever celebrate Dia de los Muertos in earnest,
in the United States.
Our Day of the Dead consisted of like 12 people.
A few nuns and a few artists,
and everybody brought a dish.
I brought mole; I remember I brought mole.
- Ofelia: The co-director there, Sister Karen Boccalero--
who was an important person in my artistic life,
and in my personal life--
wanted to have an event that would involve the community,
where they could do art,
where they could bring people to a cultural thing.
- Linda Vallejo: The mission of Self Help Graphics
has always been to bring art into the community.
To bring the community into art experience,
this is what Sister Karen really believed;
that art belonged to everyone.
Sister Karen was definitely ahead of her time,
and we were all a little bit crazy,
so we went right along with her. [laughs]
- Bettu Avila: The artists and Sister Karen carved out
almost a template that is now used all over the country.
They took Dia de los Muertos from something
that was very intimate, very familial
and blew it up,
with the purpose of building community.
Dia de los Muertos constantly evolves,
and it's a reflection of the community
as the Chicano identity has evolved,
as the city of Los Angeles has evolved.
Any sort of fusion or exchange of ideas,
I think it's so, it's so L.A.!
- Ofelia: I was born in East Los Angeles,
and I've lived here all my life.
I have nine children.
I was a schoolteacher for 28 years.
My whole career was in my immediate community,
and I think I'm always a teacher.
I think we could add a couple of these,
like you added these.
Just to bring this color.
California was Mexico until 1849.
Before that, it was the indigenous people.
Here in Los Angeles, it was the Tongva people.
It's important to know that history,
because many people who are here
have not been recognized as part of this land.
- Bettu Avila: With Dia de los Muertos you have,
you know, obviously the Spanish Catholic influence,
you have the indigenous Aztec influence,
and then, you have the remix that the Chicano community
put on here.
- Linda Vallejo: Chicano basically is Mexican born in the United States.
I mean that's literally what it is.
But now the Chicano movement has also taken on
Latinos of all, from all countries,
from all backgrounds, from all histories.
I would say the Chicanismo has a place for everyone.
- Joel Garcia: The way Chicanos and folks here on the east side
celebrate Day of the Dead is different
than the way it's celebrated in Mexico,
but very much in line with the spiritual tradition of it.
The biggest difference is access to the cemeteries at night.
Here in US at sundown, they're closed.
So that immediately kind of shifts the way
you can celebrate it, and how you celebrate it.
- Betty: We have been partnering with Grand Park
to bring in artists, to bring in community organizations
and individuals to create different altars.
We, of course, always have our master altar maker artist,
Ofelia Esparza, and so she'll make the large community altar
that people can then contribute to on their own.
- How do you grow to be a master altar maker, right?
Obviously, she was taught by her mother
and that tradition's carried on in her family.
- Is there a Sister Karen down there?
- Joel: But it takes a different shape when you're doing it
amongst the public.
- Xavier Esparza: It makes me feel good that the young people,
they're actually really interested in it.
You know, as a kid, I didn't really grasp it, but now,
you know, I see how important it is as far as
where we come from, who we are.
- Boy: The Day of Dead is celebrated two days.
The first day is for kids, and babies, and pets
who've passed away.
The second day is for grownups who've passed away.
In Spanish it's called Dia de los Muertos.
- Joel: It's our way to connect to other communities,
and sometimes it's the only time
that we connect with these communities,
but it's an important opportunity to do so.
- Her father passed away last year, and she said,
"Huh, it would be neat to build one for my dad."
So, it's not in our direct cultural lineage,
but I think it would be an interesting... way to celebrate.
- I think it's a great way to remember someone.
- Yeah.
- Can you help put my mother somewhere in the center?
- My grandmother would say they were with us
because, look, the bread is drier,
they sucked the life out of it,
and the water is a little lower.
So, you can see how we can't stop doing this.
We can't-- we have to keep the third death
from ever occurring.
- We're sharing Dia de los Muertos
with the rest of the world,
and the more we understand why we celebrate a certain way,
it gives you a whole insight about each other.
- Culture is an involving thing,
and when you mix art into culture
and artists into culture, then anything goes.
It's open, anything can happen.
- We work with artists who are less concerned
with physical walls and physical border spaces,
and more concerned with how their work affects communities.
Finding ways to go above and beyond borders
is something that we're very good at
in this community.