Bright orange and yellow marigolds decorate wooden altars dedicated to loved ones who have passed. Burning candles illuminate the faces of those who have crossed over. Music plays, food is shared, and stories of family members fill the air.
That is the scene artists have been asked to create for this year’s Día de Muertos: They’re Having a Party! exhibition at the Bath House Cultural Center, where the annual celebration is marking its 40th year.
“In the scenario of the celebration, we’re thinking about the spirits, about a spiritual presence,” says Enrique Fernández Cervantes, curator and visual arts coordinator of the Bath House Cultural Center. “We imagine that they’re here and that they’ve come to have fun with us, and we want artists to imagine that setting of festivities and imagine those spirits having a good time.”
For Cervantes, that distinction is important. Día de Muertos (also referred to as Día de los Muertos) is not about celebrating death itself, but about remembering the people who have died and the memories they left behind.
Maggie Wolters, a Mexican artist leading cartonería (papier mâché) artwork in Dallas, is known for her large-scale papier mâché sculptures and Día de los Muertos altars. Photos courtesy of Enrique Fernández Cervantes.
That idea has shaped the Bath House’s annual exhibition for decades. The exhibition traces its roots to Cora Cardona Hurst, founder of Teatro Dallas, a nonprofit theater that focuses on international works and the Latino experience. Cardona Hurst was using the Bath House Cultural Center as a home for Teatro in the ’80s when she was producing the first iterations of the exhibition.
“In 1986, I staged Don Juan Tenorio by Jose Zorrilla, the first DOD show, along with an altar where audiences were able to appreciate the arts and crafts made in Mexico during this holiday,” Cardona Hurst says.
Her play included scenes where certain characters dine at tombstones, which she notes as a reason why so many Mexican-Americans embraced it since it deeply resembled the tradition of dining and celebrating at Mexican cemeteries for Día de Muertos.
Cardona Hurst decided to bring the Día de Muertos altars into the Bath House’s gallery spaces as an extension of her production to inform the public about the holiday.
“She began doing exhibitions here that featured Day of the Dead altars, and she did that one year, and the public responded very well,” Cervantes says. “The then-director (of the Bath House) invited Cora back to do another play.”
What began as an extension of a theater production eventually became a recurring exhibition — one that would continue for four decades.
By the time Cervantes, who came from Mexico City, arrived at the Bath House Cultural Center in 1999, the exhibition had already become a tradition.
“I thought, ‘Oh, that’s a festivity that I grew up with, and maybe I can do something to continue that tradition,’” Cervantes says.
As visitors began coming to the exhibition, Cervantes noticed their curiosity extended beyond the artwork itself. They wanted to understand the symbols, traditions and details incorporated into the pieces.
Why, visitors would ask, was a monarch butterfly appearing in a work? Why were short poems written alongside certain pieces?
Among the traditions he and the Bath House have explored are calaveras — short rhyming poems that can be affectionate, satirical or even used to criticize public figures.
“So, throughout the last 10 or 12 years, we’ve thought about one thing that maybe people don’t know much about in regards to the celebration, and we explore that,” he says.
This year, about 350 to 400 works are expected to be submitted for consideration, with roughly 45-60 ultimately making their way into the three gallery spaces at the Bath House.
“The main thing I look for is whether or not the artists actually read the description of the theme,” he says. “And, that they’re following our directive to think in ways that they can illustrate the theme’s idea.”
Cervantes reviews photographs of the submitted artwork without knowing who created each piece.
“It’s not only about the aesthetic elements of the piece, although that’s important,” he says. “It’s also about what the piece is communicating and how strongly that piece is touching or moving somebody.”
After curating the exhibition 28 times, Cervantes also knows the importance of looking at the artwork through other perspectives. He occasionally seeks input from independent curators and artists who have experience with Día de Muertos exhibitions.
But the artists who submit their work — and the people who come to see it — have changed considerably since the exhibition’s early years.
Cervantes says that at the very beginning of the exhibition’s history, the majority of the artwork was submitted by artists of Latino origin. Now, the majority of the artists are no longer Latino.
Rather than seeing that shift as a departure from the exhibition’s roots, Cervantes views it as a sign that people outside the Mexican culture have found something meaningful in the celebration.
“I saw that increase of participation from non-Latinos as something flattering to my community, my Mexican heritage,” Cervantes says.
“Day of the Dead is one of the most ancient rituals of the American continent,” Cardona Hurst says. “It belongs to all of us, whoever wants to embrace it and pay tribute to our departed loved ones.”
The exhibit will run from Oct. 10 through Nov. 7.
