On Saturday, midway above the Rio Grande, two groups of 10-foot-high skeleton puppets will approach each other from opposite sides of the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico and meet in a symbolic embrace in honor of families whose loved ones have lost their lives in their attempt to reach America.
The giant Día de Los Muertos papier-mâché figures, called mojigangas, will unite as part of a Day of the Dead vigil conducted by the Border Network for Human Rights, an immigration reform and human rights advocacy organization in El Paso.
“We want to remember the families who didn’t have a chance to see their loved ones,” said Fernando Garcia, the group’s founder and executive director. “For us, it is a catastrophe.”
Día de Los Muertos , the indigenously rooted, primarily Mexican holiday marked on the first two days of November, is commonly thought of as a time for families to celebrate loved ones who’ve passed on with altars, or ofrendas, bearing photos, treats and other reminders of the things they enjoyed. But even as the tradition has rooted itself in America, its purpose has eclipsed reunion and remembrance, providing a vehicle for social commentary and dissent on issues of the moment, from the days of the Vietnam War to the COVID-19 pandemic .