La Bloga: Building an Altar for Dia de Los Muertos

“The great Mexican poet Octavio Paz once said, “The Mexican is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it and celebrates it. It is one of his favorite playthings and his most steadfast love.”

For me, Gina MarySol Ruiz, Aztec dancer, writer, Chicana, mother, grandmother and beloved granddaughter of Lupe and Salvador Camarillo; it is all of that and so much more. I am a danzante, an Aztec dancer. A danzante isn’t a dancer in the popular sense of the word – for us, each dance is a prayer. We’re not dancing to entertain or seduce, we’re PRAYING with each move we make. Some of us, like me, dance barefoot on the pavement. I’ve been in many parades or ceremonies where my feet have blistered or bled or both but I take no notice at the time. If I do, it’s given up in prayer as a sacrifice. Danzantes keep going. We don’t just stop praying because our feet hurt.”

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