Dia de Muertos

Masses of people poured into the Portland Art Museum for an event honoring the Mexican holiday, Dia de Muertos, aka Dia de los Muertos on Friday evening. There was food, furnished by many Latin American restaurants. There were altars/ofrendas. There was entertainment. There was even a costume contest, and one of the prizes donated to the winner was a photo shoot with me. 

The winner was this marvelous woman from El Salvador named Orquidia Violeta who designs "wearable art." She won the contest in a dress made of calaveras (skulls) representing specific women killed in El Salvador during the Civil War. I very much look forward to working with her. 

Part of the proceeds of all the food sales went to Don't Shoot Portland, an organization for racial justice that I belong to. All of us involved in the planning were astonished by the huge turnout (you get a glimpse of the standing-room-only crowd in this photograph). We suspect that as the President of this country makes increasingly appalling racist statements about people who want to come here from Latin American countries, the citizens of Portland had a need to come together in support of the beloved immigrants who add so much soul, beauty, talent, and wisdom to this country built on indigenous people’s land. 


Very late last night I posted an album of photographs of the event here.