![]() The traditional Isthmian jicalpextles overflow with chips, cheese, and dried shrimp, and rival in color the marquesote decorated with fretwork motifs and the names of the deceased. She places the last details on the altar––a majestic installation of seven steps, “the phases of life that guide all human beings,” says Deyanira––which is crowned with the Virgin of Guadalupe under an arch of banana leaves. ![]() The striking outfit is adorned with earrings and a gold necklace worked in the traditional Isthmian filigree technique. ![]() From it she extracts a cap embroidered with white flowers that stand out on her deep black huipil and skirt. Inside her house, Esperanza Deyanira Aquino Pineda, La Teca, opens her old trunk. The papel pidcado frames the colorful creation of the Ruiz López sisters. Now, on November 1st, we just have to wait for the church bells to chime at 3:00 p.m., for the fireworks, and for that slightly cold wind that announces that it is time to open the doors of the house to let them in. Yellow tamales wrapped in corn husks, the traditional bread of the dead, fruits, chocolate-atole, and livers with egg are just some of the foods that are specifically cooked to rejoice the souls that return. Itzel Bibiana, her granddaughter, sets out the mats on which the souls will rest in order to enjoy the banquet that has been prepared in their honor. Viviana, along with her daughters-in-law, Petra and Guillermina, line up the chairs where relatives and acquaintances will sit and visit the altar built in the main room for worshipping saints, which is located in their house/workshop in Teotitlán del Valle, in the state of Oaxaca, southeast of Mexico. It means “Grandfather, grandmother, have a glass of mezcal now that you are with us.” The copal resins, which have already been fused with the incandescent coal, cause a smoky and aromatic effect that announces the arrival of those who have left, but who return every November 1st and 2nd to the homes of those who remember them. “Cuúl, mam, guquín yuvituu te cop niss wuvadauu naá rivees yúbitu con dunuun,” says Viviana Alavez in her native Zapotec language. How is the Day of the Dead celebrated in Oaxaca?
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