NOVEMBER: THE DAY OF THE DEAD
A calavera decorated with Frida's name.
The centerpiece of a Day of the Dead offering for Frida
On the last day of October, the Blue House moved into high gear. The night before, Ines the carpenter had put the finishing touches on the table that would hold our offerings to the family dead, among them Frida's mother, dona Matilde. This was in keeping with one of the Mexican people's most ancient and deeply rooted customs.
Since dona Matilde had been born in Oaxaca, Frida asked the carpenter to build the table according to the custom of that beautiful southern state, and Ines followed the instructions to the last detail. The holiday would take place on two consecutive days: November I, which honors the dead children of the family, and November 2, the Day of the Dead, also known as the Day of the Faithful Departed.
Ines had begun cutting zcmpazuchitl flowers from the family garden on the night of October 31. Some of these he scattered over the table, so that "when the little angels return they will be greeted by the brilliance and shining colors of these flowers the color of the sun." He strung other flowers together into garlands which he then placed on three wooden chests already decorated with golden flowers. The chests stood at the head of the table.
"Fridu," as I liked to call her, bad already been to the Coyoacan market for the necessities: fruit for the punch, chiles and other ingredients for the moles. She also bought tamales and other dishes dear to her mother, since popular belief had it tbat the family dead, dona Matilde among them, would come on November 2 to enjoy their favorite foods, which should be properly prepared and attractively served.
In the afternoon Frida and I went to the old Merced neighborhood in the center of town to collect her friend Carmen Sevilla, a great artist with papier-mache. Her calaveras (sugar skulls) and dancing skeletons were valued by connoisseurs of this popular genre as authentic works of art.
Frida decorated the offering table with the smallest of the dancing skeletons and sugar figurines of lambs, chickens, bulls, and ducks, along with other calaveras. The ones that Carmen Sevilla had made decorated the dining room walls and Frida's studio. The house was transformed into a place where death was an object of wonder and respect, but also something we lived with every day.
The first day of the festival Eulalia placed children's food on the table-mugs of atDle, plates of beans and mildly seasoned food, fruit and sweets. Frida provided dessert: sugar paste candies, pumpkin smothered in traditional brown sugar syrup, and sugar skulls with the names of the family dead written on their heads in sugar letters.
Year after year the confectioners made sugar skulls in all sizes, from truly astonishing life::.size ones to bite-size miniatures for the children. Frida bought four of the largest and had the names of Matilde, Guillermo, Diego, and Frida written on them as a tribute to her parents, her husband, and herself. The names of the adult members of Frida's family were written on medium-size skulls, while the smallest bore the names of Isolda and Tonito (her sister Cristina's children), Ruth and Lupe -the four youngest people in the house. Huge pumpkins were decorated with little silver and gold flags, and the center of the table was occupied by a Oaxaca platter piled with Frida's mother's favorite fruits and nuts in season: sugar cane, limes, mandarin oranges, peanuts, and jicamas. These, too, were decorated with little colored flags. Finally, Frida placed sugar paste figurines here and there on the table and, for the final touch, set candles at the four corners of a mock grave fashioned of paper flowers.
The following day, November 2, the altar was dedicated to the Faithful Departed, with special attention to dona Matilde. Early in the morning Frida placed a picture of her mother on the mock grave. This was her part in the ritual. It fell to Ioes and Eulalia to remove the offerings to the children and replace them with adult food and sweets.
Traditional foods were served throughout the day. Breakfast consisted of a.toie and chocolate, Dead Man's Bread, cookies in the shape of little bones, beans, tortillas and pasilIa chile sauce, along with the brown corn tlacoyos that Matilde Kahlo had so enjoyed. The midday meal consisted of yellow and red moles, Oaxacan beef jerky, red rice with dried shrimp, chicken sauteed in chile pipian, pumpkin in syrup, sweet potatoes in sancocho, tamales in plantain leaves, white alole and fresh fruit.
At that time Frida was teaching painting at La Esmeralda, a public art school . dedicated to furthering the tradition of Mexican mural painting. Some of Frida's students were painting the exterior walls of a small pulque shop at the corner of Centenario and Londres Streets in Coyoacan. "La Rosita" ("Rosy"). as the owner of the pulqueria was known. had agreed to let Frida's students Estrada. Bustos and Fanny Rabel use her walls to practice mural painting.
The students paid Frida a visit on November 3. She was quite proud of the offering and invited them in to see it and to eat their share of the food thaI was left on the tahle "after the departed had paid their respects." It was traditional for the living to finish the remaining food and sweets, down to wiping the plates clean.
Contrary to the usual practice, on this Day of the Dead alcoholic beverages were allowed. Frida's students contributed a delicious fresh pulque that the owner of the pulqueria had insisted they lake to their illustrious teacher. Frida also urged people to drink whisky and brandy, a practice she had picked up in New York and Paris. But when my father returned home, Frida switched to drinking tequila.
For the Day of the Dead, a corner of the Diego Rivera Studio Museum was transformed with a special offering for Frida
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Fried Bread with Syrup
Dead Man's Bread
Chicken in Pipian Sauce
Yellow Mole
Red Mole
Red Tamales
Tamales in Banana Leaves
Mixed Tropical Fruit in Syrup
Pumpkin in Syrup
Strawberry Atole