Tag Archives: dia de los muertos
SF Musician and Teacher Builds Bridges Between Local Culture and SF Symphony
Over the course of nearly a decade, Mission District music teacher Martha Rodriguez Salazar helped Latino song and tradition find a permanent home at the San Francisco Symphony. Now in its ninth year, the Symphony’s annual Día de los Muertos concert will again return to Davies Symphony Hall on Saturday October 5. As curator of the festival and music advisor...
SNAP: Ghostly Procession
Why We Go to Día de Los Muertos in San Francisco
On Wednesday, a crowd of more than 2,000 people gathered in the Mission for an annual festival of altars and procession commemorating the Día de Los Muertos Mexican ancestral holiday. San Francisco natives and visitors alike turned out for the event, which we covered all night here. Get to know a few of the people who stopped to talk tradition,...
SF Altar Honors Orlando’s 49 Pulse Nightclub Victims
As Rebekah Sitty approached the corner of Harrison and 26th streets in the Mission, a 12-foot tall rainbow welcomed her into the Day of the Dead altar festival. Sitty, who was joined by her partner and her two-year-old son on Wednesday night, has been coming to the celebration for 25 years. The first feelings that hit her were happiness and...
Day of the Dead — Thousands Gather in the Mission
10:05 p.m. — We’re signing off as Day of the Dead celebrations wind down in the Mission. Scroll down for photos, videos and stories from this year’s festival of altars and procession — then be sure to check back Thursday for more coverage! It’s Día de Los Muertos, which means San Francisco is headed to the Mission. Check the updating...
Parents of Alex Nieto Remember Their Son and Wait for a Permanent Altar
Today could have been different for the Nietos. They thought their son Alex Nieto would have a permanent memorial in Bernal Heights by the time Día de los Muertos came. They envisioned leading the annual procession of mourners from the memorial to Garfield Park, where he and other victims of police violence would be honored at public altars. “We want...
VIDEO: SF Mission Altars and Day of the Dead
Mission Cultural Center Altar Exhibit from Alan Toth on Vimeo.
SF Homeless Advocates Memorialize the Dead and Do Some Campaigning
In his four years living on the streets, Richard Ramirez watched three fellow homeless people die. One man passed away in his arms. “Apparently he had walking pneumonia,” Ramirez said. “He didn’t even know he had it. He literally just fell from his feet straight to the ground.” Ramirez recounted the story for a crowd of some 25 people who...
Merchants, Artists Turn to Day of the Dead During Turbulent Times
After eight months of arranging incognito border crossings for highly in-demand Donald Trump piñatas, Nancy Charraga is enjoying a change of pace. The last few days have been a whirlwind of sugar skulls, technicolor paper flowers and other seasonal décor sought out by clientele of her Valencia Street shop, Casa Bonampak — all ahead of celebrations for the Día de...
Loss, History and a Promise for the Mission at SOMArts
René Yañez is widely credited with bringing the tradition of dia de los muertos to live in San Francisco, but this year, the Day of the Dead exhibition he curated at SOMArts Cultural Center is both acutely local and nationally relevant. This year’s compilation of artistic offerings, A Promise Not to Forget, pays tribute to several recently passed local artists. Among...
Día de los Muertos Continues at Symphony Hall
The procession has passed by, but the Día de los Muertos season is still in full swing at the San Francisco Symphony, where Mexican curator and artist Martha Rodríguez-Salazar is mixing cultures. For the eighth year in a row, she’s bringing Mexican traditions into the midst of Davies Symphony Hall, often filled with the sounds of classical music. “It’s an opportunity to create...
Día de los Muertos Sweeps Through SF Mission
Hundreds of people gathered in the Mission last night to watch a procession of skeletons on stilts, indigenous dancers, skeleton-painted faces, and candle-holding participants commemorating their passed ancestors and loved ones. Crowds thronged 24th Street, spilling from packed sidewalks onto the street, with their phones overhead to catch the march going by. Some darted into barber shops, where they could get their face painted...
Día de los Muertos: Your Mission Guide
Día de los Muertos is on Sunday and Monday, and as always the Mission will host the annual procession and funeral of altars on Monday, a hundreds-strong march of painted faces, costumed dancers, blaring trumpets, lights, skulls, candles, incense, and, more often than not, activists carrying anti-gentrification signs and making speeches on the changing neighborhood. It’s tradition, and this year promises the same...
Long-Time Artist Captures a Genteel Mission in Homie Boxes
Chances are, you’ve seen Cindy DeLosa’s work in windows around the Mission: small dioramas with “homie” figurines depicting iconic scenes and moments in the neighborhood. The “homie boxes,” as they’re called, can be spotted everywhere, but if you want to see about a dozen of them in one place, head for the window galley at Precita Eyes on 24th Street, where Cindy...