![]() There are skeleton figurines, a small dog, a small plate of uncooked pinto beans and a cigar box full of photos and memorial cards for friends and relatives who have passed. She erects it in the front room of the West Side home, with a photo of her son as the centerpiece. “It’s the belief that our loved ones, who lived on this earth and loved, live on with the people who love them.” It was the annual altar, though, that helped her channel her grief. Vargas and her husband, Lawrence, started the charity Lawrence Charles Vargas Shoes-for-Kids & Acts of Compassion as a way to honor their son. In 2008, her son was killed in Downtown Albuquerque, shot in the back after trying to break up a fight. It grew every year, but she could never have imagined how important that practice would become. Her first ofrenda was just a candle and some photos. It inspired her to begin practicing the tradition as a way to make sense of the loss that death brings. Having just attended the event, she said, it was so much easier to explain to her son about the woman’s passing. That same night, she got a call that her abuelita, or grandma, had passed away. She first encountered the practice in 1995 at an elementary school event for her son, Lawrence Charles Vargas, who was 5 at the time. Terry Vargas started her altar to help process the death of her loved ones. “The altar is the only way I know them.”įinally, the seventh level is the pathway leading to the altar, a place the dead will kneel, confess their sins and ask for forgiveness. ![]() “I always feature my great-grandma and great-grandpa, who I never met,” he said. The pictures he includes are usually of family members and friends who have passed that year. ![]() Photos are dispersed throughout the altar, but the sixth level is the main section for them. The pan de muerto goes on the fourth level, followed by the favorite food and drinks of loved ones on the fifth level. The third level always contains salt for purification. On the second level, he places water and a mirror so the returning loved ones can hydrate themselves and see their reflection as they return. He uses the top level to represent his religious and spiritual beliefs. ![]() Each level of the altar has a different meaning. Pardo puts up a large, seven-level altar outside, usually near the entrance of his home, to welcome his loved ones and light the way as they return to this world. Other popular items that adorn the ofrendas are pan de muerto (bread of the dead), a glass of water, dishes of food, fruit, alcoholic beverages and candles. It is believed the flower’s vibrant colors and powerful scent will lure and welcome the spirits, who are surrounded by beautiful flowers in the afterlife, García said. The marigold is another image associated with Día de los Muertos altars. García said the skeletons are not morbid, but instead are a symbol of transformation. Photos of lost loved ones are the main feature, but skeletons are a prominent theme. Many of the altars seen today share similar elements. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) Terry Vargas lights a candle as part of the Dia de Los Muertos Ofrendas at her West Side home on October 21, 2021. The celebration is widespread in Mexico, the former location of the Aztec empire, and as the Mexican people have migrated to the United States, they have brought the tradition with them, especially to the Southwest, García said. What began as an Aztec ceremony welcoming the dead back from Mictlán, the underworld, has evolved into families visiting their deceased loved ones at cemeteries and most recently to ofrendas, or offerings, also known as altars, inside homes, schools and businesses and at community events. As society has changed, García said, so has the way people celebrate the tradition.
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