An Array of Utopian Flowers
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Los Angeles Steps Up Transition Toward 100% Renewable Energy
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12 Reasons to Try Elliott Abrams in the International Criminal Court
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Ecological Amnesia: Life Without Wild Things
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Coup Redux in Venezuela: ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’
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Pushing Back Against the Venezuela Coup-Plotters
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Day of the Dead Archive
Mythological Journey to the Aztec Underworld
Posted on October 10, 2018 | 2 CommentsIn Aztec cosmology, the soul's journey to the Underworld after death leaves them with four destinations: the Sacred Orchard of the Gods, the Place of Darkness, the Kingdom of the Sun, and a paradise called the Mansion of the Moon. The most common deaths end up on their way to Mictlán with its nine levels, crashing mountains and rushing rivers, and four years of struggle. This pantheon of gods and goddesses and the expanse of the 13 Heavens provides the cultural basis for the Day of the Dead customs and celebrations.
Is Day of the Dead Culture in SF’s Mission Endangered?
Posted on October 30, 2016 | 1 CommentIn San Francisco, the Mission District has celebrated Day of the Dead every year in since the early 70’s with altars in Garfield Park, serving as a community graveyard for the night and through art, music, other live performances and a walking procession. With the neighborhood in transition from rapid gentrification, will this vibrant culture rite continue? Yes, for now... Photos by Jack Eidt from 2015.
Death By Misadventure: Malcolm Lowry’s Gin-Sopped Volcano
Posted on October 22, 2015 | 1 CommentMalcolm Lowry’s 1947 masterpiece "Under the Volcano," about the fervid last hours of an alcoholic ex-diplomat in Mexico, is set to the drumbeat of coming internal and external conflict. Autobiographical and reflective of the expatriated trust-funder in a futile search for an artistic home, the perpetually inebriated master got lost along the road toward his own abyss, and died under suspicious circumstances, out-of-print.
Aztec Myth: Quetzalcoatl Rescues Humanity in the Land of the Dead
Posted on December 11, 2014 | 4 CommentsPart of the Mesoamerican myth of the origin of people, where Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, descends into the Land of the Dead, Mictlán, to rescue the bones of humanity and bring them back to life.
Calavera de Azúcar: Painted Sugar Skulls on Dia de los Muertos
Posted on November 13, 2014 | No CommentsMexico's traditional celebration of Dia de los Muertos embraces the inevitability of death. Painting faces in the style of Santa Muerte (Saint Death), Calavera Catrina (Dame Skeleton), or another loving tribute to the counter-Guadalupe icon Frida Kahlo pays homage to the beauty in death, offering eye-candy sugar skulls in tribute to the ancestors.
B. Traven’s “Macario” – Magical Realist Journey on Day of the Dead
Posted on September 7, 2013 | 3 CommentsThe Mexican film Macario (1960) weaves a tale of magical realism - with special appearances by God, the Devil and Death. It all begins on the Day of the Dead, when a campesino named Macario goes on a hunger strike. B. Traven, the mysterious German writer exiled in Mexico, wrote the story, inspired from indigenous folk tales.
All Souls Day Procession Honors the Ancestors in Antigua, Guatemala
Posted on November 5, 2012 | 2 CommentsIn Guatemala, a procession through the cobblestone streets of the former capital, Antigua, marks the end of the Day of the Dead, All Saints and All Souls.
Day of the Dead: Aztec Dance Honoring the Soul’s Rest
Posted on October 29, 2012 | 26 CommentsIn the pre-Hispanic era, skulls were kept as trophies and displayed during the rituals to symbolize death and rebirth. These ancestors passed down the knowledge that souls exist after death, resting in Mictlan, the land of the dead, not for judgment or resurrection, but for the day each year when they could return home to visit their loved ones.
Stories of a Maya Rebirth: Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth
Posted on September 8, 2012 | No CommentsThe documentary "Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth" presents an alternative worldview to industrial capitalism consuming the earth, following six young Maya into their daily and ceremonial life, revealing their determination to resist the destruction of their culture and environment.
Drums and Dance of Día de los Muertos
Posted on November 1, 2011 | 4 CommentsIn pre-Hispanic Nahua culture (Aztec and the many other peoples of Central Mexico), life was seen as a dream, and only in dying could a human truly awaken. Death would set free the soul.
Olvera Street Day of the Dead – Los Angeles with an Aztec Flair
Posted on October 31, 2011 | 3 CommentsOlvera Street near downtown Los Angeles burst with color, reverence, and dance for the annual Dia de los Muertos celebration and procession.
Day of the Dead Ofrendas: Calavera Fashion Show and Walking Altars
Posted on November 9, 2010 | 3 CommentsShort poems, anecdotes, mocking or reverent tributes, called calaveras or “skulls,” are given to celebrate public or private figures. In Los Angeles, for the last seven years Tropico de Nopal Gallery has taken the custom into the realm of performance art-fashion show-walking altar display.
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