Colorful marigolds and decorative cut-paper banners called “papel picado,” skulls and skeletons and the early stages of altars dot La Vista Memorial Park’s rolling grassy hills and gravesites.
The scent of those marigold flowers, called cempasúchil, is what many people believe helps the spirits of the dead find their way back home.
In the coming days, many of those spirits are expected to return to this cemetery in San Diego’s Lincoln Acres neighborhood for the celebration of Día de los Muertos…