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The Days of the Dead: Mexico's Festival of Communion with the Departed
Introduces the Mexican holiday and its customs.
- GenresNonfictionArt
110 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 15, 2025
"You Meet Some of the Nicest People in Cemeteries."
This thoughtful, tender photographic collection offers an intimate glimpse into Mexican celebrations of Dia de Muertos. Through a series of compelling images captured between 1985 and 1990, the book presents a contrast to contemporary Halloween celebrations in white midwestern US culture, challenging our paradigms of death, memory, and community. We have much to learn from cultures that maintain stronger connections with their ancestors.
The photographs show multi-generational communities coming together in cemetery spaces, depicting a more meaningful and less commercialized approach to honoring the deceased. The visual journey takes readers from simple, heartfelt memorials to extravagant ofrenda displays, across marketplaces, homes, roadsides and cemeteries.
The book served as a gateway for me to explore deeper topics connected to Mexican culture, such as specifics of how ofrenda altars are composed and treated, and the historical figure of Nezahualcoyotl, the pre-Columbian poet-king, whose influence resonates through this holiday.
This book is a valuable addition to any collection focused on cultural studies or documentary photography.
This thoughtful, tender photographic collection offers an intimate glimpse into Mexican celebrations of Dia de Muertos. Through a series of compelling images captured between 1985 and 1990, the book presents a contrast to contemporary Halloween celebrations in white midwestern US culture, challenging our paradigms of death, memory, and community. We have much to learn from cultures that maintain stronger connections with their ancestors.
The photographs show multi-generational communities coming together in cemetery spaces, depicting a more meaningful and less commercialized approach to honoring the deceased. The visual journey takes readers from simple, heartfelt memorials to extravagant ofrenda displays, across marketplaces, homes, roadsides and cemeteries.
The book served as a gateway for me to explore deeper topics connected to Mexican culture, such as specifics of how ofrenda altars are composed and treated, and the historical figure of Nezahualcoyotl, the pre-Columbian poet-king, whose influence resonates through this holiday.
This book is a valuable addition to any collection focused on cultural studies or documentary photography.
December 31, 2017
“We come only to sleep, only to dream / It is not true, it is not true that we come to live on this earth / We become as spring weeds, we grow green and open the petals of our hearts / Our body is a plant in flower, it gives flowers and it dies away / I, Netzahaulcoyotl ask: does one really live with roots in this earth? / Not always on this earth, only a little while here / Even jade breaks, just as gold breaks / Even the quetzal plumes fall apart / Not always on this earth, only a little while here.”
November 18, 2007
It is written in both spanish and english so it's great -and the photos are so beautiful.
November 1, 2013
Beautiful pictures of the celebration if Los Dias de Muertos.
January 25, 2015
Wonderful photos and stories.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews