El Dia de Los Muertos at Self Help Graphics

A full month of calavera painting, banner cutting, tissue flower making and other crafting at Self Help Graphics culminated in their annual El Dia de Los Muertos celebration last Monday. The community arts center and printmaking studio has a long history of celebrating the Mexican holiday for honoring the dead, reaching back thirty-six years to its first Day of the Dead celebration, involving just two artists who met at Evergreen Cemetery to remember their ancestors. In the years that have followed, the annual festival has grown and grown in size and popularity, with this year’s festivities moving from the Self Help Graphics to the East LA Civic Center.

The lawn behind the civic center was packed with people, many in full costume, others opting only for the half-painted face, making for some interesting turning heads, rotating from a given complexion to the pale white and graphic black flourishes of a calavera. A wide array of vendors were offering everything from incense and brightly painted ceramic skulls to tamales, pozole and champurrado.

The new venue brought a slightly different vibe to the affair—the feeling of an organic, community-driven block party left in the parking lot off of Cesar Chavez Boulevard where the event has been held in past years. But with an impressive island stage for the music acts—which included Conjunto Los Pochos, La Santa Cecilia and others—and a large lawn for the craft tents, there were advantages to the new location as well.

It was a perfect night for a warm bowl of pozole, a tall Styrofoam cup of champurrado and to remember and celebrate the dead.