Solana Beach has announced details for this year’s Día de los Muertos celebration at La Colonia Park on Oct. 19, including calls to claim altar space to honor family and friends who have died.
This year’s Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, celebration will pay homage to the Pachuco era, a Mexican-American subculture from the early 20th century. As a form of counterculture that was prominent especially in cities such as Los Angeles, it set trends in areas such as fashion and music.
The event, which will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., is free to attend. There will also be a blessing of altars by the Aztec Dancers Danza Coatlique Ceminitzli at 9:30 a.m.
The Día de los Muertos celebration also follows National Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. The month-long commemoration honors the anniversary that Latin American countries, including El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica, achieved their independence. Last year, Solana Beach celebrated the month with a “Driving Prosperity, Power and Progress” theme.
Latinos have shaped present-day Solana Beach since the 1920s, decades before Solana Beach became a city. Mexican farmworkers established a community that came to be known as La Colonia de Eden Gardens. Some of the fourth- and fifth-generation descendants of the founding families still live in the neighborhood.
La Colonia Park is located at 715 Valley Avenue in Solana Beach. For more information, visit cityofsolanabeach.org.
Requests for Día de los Muertos altar space can be emailed to [email protected].
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