Easthampton community invited to honor ancestors through ofrenda

Oct. 21, 2020 | Angelica J. Core
angelica@thereminder.com


Last year’s ofrenda, honoring the ancestors of community members.
Reminder Publishing submitted photos

EASTHAMPTON – Attack Bear Press, founded in 2016 by playwright Jason Montgomery and poet Alexandra Woolner, is hosting their second annual community ofrenda where all are welcome to come together to honor their ancestors. The event will run from Oct. 31 through Nov. 2.

The ofrenda will start at sundown on Oct. 31.

This event celebrates Día de Muertos meaning the Day of the Dead, a Mexican and Indigenous peoples’ holiday.

Montgomery said he and Neftali Duran started this three years ago in response to what was viewed as the appropriation of the holiday by people in Western Mass. and beyond.

Montgomery is Chicano of Native California decent and wants people to understand that this holiday is not an alternative Halloween.

“Starting roughly in 1972, Dia del Los Muertos emerged as a notable milestone in expressions of Chicano identity for those in the Chicano rights movement with the first ‘public’ celebration happening in 1974 as a part of the march for Chicano rights in San Francisco in protest of the Vietnam War and farm labor practices through California,” Montgomery said.

He added that the work they did to have that march was coordinated by activist organizations based in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Sacramento. The activists were hoping to address systemic inequities from housing discrimination to mob lynching suffered by Mexican-Americans and braceros.

Normally the Baustein Building located at 532 Main St. in Holyoke donates a space to host the event but this year due to the coronavirus, he wanted a safe space for people. The ofrenda will be held in an outcove located in the back parking lot. Montgomery said there will be signs to guide people. People who wish to stop by will be able to access it 24 hours a day.

There will also be a drive-up and walk-through option as well at the Wistariahurst Museum. Iohann Rashi Vega of Radioplasma and Holyoke media will be taking pictures and videos that will be projected on a screen at the museum.

This year there will be a coronavirus theme and how it affected all communities.

“We are holding space and providing special opportunities for Indigenous people who are participating but we want to discuss how COVID has affected us all,” Montgomery said.

Everyone is welcomed to participate. People can submit a photo of their loved ones on their website, under submissions, and click the community ofrenda poster. Montgomery and Woolner will print it out and place it on the ofrenda. The public has until Oct. 28 to submit a photo.

People can also bring food that their ancestors liked to sit on the ofrenda as well.

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