The tradition of poetry on Día de los Muertos

CATHY WURZER: Today, of course, is Halloween, and that makes tomorrow, November the 1st, Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Some of the key ingredients of this celebration are made of sugar and clay. There are decorative skulls known as calaveras, but calaveras is also a term for a poem written for the Day of the Dead. Joining us right now with more on this tradition is Teresa Ortiz. She's a poet and a member of the spoken word collective, Palabristas. Teresa, thanks for taking the time. How have you been?

TERESA ORTIZ: I have been good. Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Good. Thank you for joining us. I want to begin by asking about Día de los Muertos. I'm sorry. My pronunciation is probably not that great. How do you observe the day personally?

TERESA ORTIZ: Well, Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead in English, is a celebration that we celebrate all over Latin America, especially in Mexico and many parts of Central America, where we honor those who are gone, those we have lost, our ancestors, as well as our loved ones. Some of them died before their time, and some of them died when it was time for them to die.

But it's a very special celebration for families where we try to honor our loved ones by having an ofrenda or an altar. That those two words are what we use to mean that we are putting everything that those loved ones loved in their lifetime-- for example, the food that they like, the fruits that they liked, things like that.

There's a special bread that is cooked for Day of the Dead, for Día de los Muertos, which is kind of a skull type-- shaped. And then we do little calaveras, which are little sugar skulls with people's names. You put the name of the person that you lost, and you put that photograph.

The other thing that is very important is flowers. We call them [SPANISH], which is kind of like-- i forgot the name in English.

CATHY WURZER: Kind of like a marigold, right?

TERESA ORTIZ: Marigolds. They are marigolds. That's exactly what they are. They have a very strong smell, so it's believed that the smell attracts the souls of those who we have lost. We also put candles and [SPANISH] and then [SPANISH] which is cut paper in the shape of skulls and things like this.

It seems a little funny for some people that are not used to it. They think that it's a little bit kind of strange, but it isn't for us. For us, it's a very sacred and a very magical and a very important time where we honor our loved ones. And we do that by showing them, making this special honor, a special [SPANISH] the Muertos that we put together.

CATHY WURZER: Will you have an ofrenda in the house, by the way? Have you created something for tomorrow?

TERESA ORTIZ: Yes. What you always do as a family is you put together something in your own home. I mean, you can also go to the cemetery. I mean, many people go to cemeteries and sit around the tombs with food and partying and drinking and songs and things like that.

But in my case, I like to have it in my home, because I have lost some people that are very, very dear to me, like my parents and three of my brothers and my oldest son. So it's very important for me that they come and visit me. It's a time to remember them, to remember them deeply. Not that we don't remember them all year round, but this is kind of like a time when we think, hey. They are here with us.

CATHY WURZER: And this must be a bit of a comfort, you know, that some people might think that that's morbid, but I think it's a comfort that you would feel that they're coming to visit you.

TERESA ORTIZ: Exactly. It's not morbid for us. It's very joyful. It's very comforting. It's kind of like how we go to the cemetery and bring flowers and talk with those who we have lost. Instead of going someplace else, to the church or the cemetery or something like that, we do it in our homes, because then it feels like they're coming back to us for one day.

CATHY WURZER: I'm wondering here. I know about the ofrendas, but I've never heard about the calaveras, the poems, that are part of the celebration. Are they about making, in a sense, fun of death?

TERESA ORTIZ: It is a little bit. We have a great sense of humor, and dead and life are very interconnected for us. So calaveras are like little poems that-- they're funny about people. Most of the time, they are about people that have we have lost.

But then also, they can be about ourselves, about people that are living. So it's like making fun of-- yeah. When you die, this is how we're going to remember you, because you did this and this and this. It's kind of making a little joke about people. They're called calaveras. They're mostly funny, yes.

CATHY WURZER: I wonder, would you be so kind? I know you brought some of your poetry to read. Would you mind maybe reading a poem that you would like to share with the rest of us?

TERESA ORTIZ: Yes. I wrote a poem, and it's not a calaveras, because it's not a funny poem. It's a pretty long poem about the celebration itself, and it goes from how it's celebrated in Guatemala, how it's celebrated in Mexico [INAUDIBLE] with how we put together the altar.

So I can read the first part of it, because it's a very long poem, so I won't read too much. And it is about the celebration in Guatemala, which is incredible. They have these huge kites that they fly, and the reason why they have these kites is because they reach the souls and then bring them back, and then people go to the cemetery and have a great party there.

CATHY WURZER: Great.

TERESA ORTIZ: So that's what this portion of the poem is about. The name of the poem is [SPANISH], and I can start reading it.

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

Orange, pink, yellow, [SPANISH]

Shining circles of color cover the heavens competing with the sun. November is the windiest month of the Guatemalan mountains and the round [SPANISH] stake out with extraordinary force.

[SPANISH]

To reach the souls up above, to remind the spirits to come down and party with us. Children run up and down the hill, holding tight to the kite strings, looking up to the sky, bumping into each other, tripping with rocks and bushes on the race, trying not to fall on their gravestones, not to step or lay down on grassy plains, on tombs, while their parents are eating and drinking and partying and having a merry good time and sharing it all with the souls of those already gone.

Come, our loved ones, come and celebrate with music and [SPANISH]. Baskets and baskets of bread have been baked for you today. Candles are lit to bring warmth to your death, spirits. [SPANISH] smoke reaches the heavens, calling you to come down to play with us.

[SPANISH] is having [SPANISH], crowded with the living and the spirits of the dead. So many visitors are coming today.

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

Come to us and celebrate [SPANISH] everywhere. Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Teresa, that's beautiful.

TERESA ORTIZ: Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Thank you for that. That was a gift to us. Thank you. I'm wondering, before I go, I'm going to wish you-- I don't know what the right word to say, but I hope your heart is full tomorrow during Día de los Muertos, and I'm so happy you had a chance to share your work with us and a little bit more about the celebration. Thank you for being with us.

TERESA ORTIZ: Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Teresa Ortiz is a member of the spoken word poetry collective Palabristas. By the way, there's a concert Saturday at the Cedar Cultural Center in an event at Midtown Global market for Día de los Muertos.