Dia de los Muertos is not a funeral; it’s a party, says Mauricio Navarro, a former Houston resident who is organizing this year’s parade and festival at Sam Houston Park on Saturday, November 7.
The free family- and pet-friendly event starts at 4 p.m. A parade kicks off at 6:30 p.m. and runs in a circle around Bagby, Walker, Smith and Lamar streets. The gathering will feature live entertainment, food, drinks, arts and crafts and cultural activities.
A portion of Allen Parkway will be shut down at 5 p.m. and the downtown streets that follow the parade route will close at 6 p.m., but they’re “roaming closures,” and the thoroughfares will reopen once the parade passes through.
“It looks like the two elements that could possibly cancel us are eliminated,” Navarro says. “There’s no rain in the forecast and the Astros didn’t win the World Series.”
Dia de los Muertos is typically celebrated on November 1 and 2 and merges ancient Mesoamerican indigenous rituals dating back thousands of years to the Aztecs and other regional cultures with Spanish Catholic traditions like All Saints Day and All Souls Day, Navarro says.
“It’s just a day for us to remember those who have passed,” he says. “We believe that they come back and visit us and we build altars in their honor of their favorite foods and hobbies. It’s a day of remembrance. They say, as long as you remember them, they’re never dead.”
“It’s primarily a Mexican tradition, but everybody’s invited, of all walks, colors and political affiliations,” he adds. “No matter who you are, no matter where you are from, we want you to attend the parade and festival. If there is something we all share, it is the love and grief for our family and friends who left us, and in this Dia de los Muertos, we are all one.”
Navarro will be remembering his late father, mother, sister and brother. “Technically, I do it to honor them but I know they’re not the only ones we have lost,” he says. “We’re just here to celebrate them, grieve for them and honor them. You grieve, and then you dance, and then you celebrate. You experience three emotions in one day. We honor everyone.”
Sergio Lira, president of Greater Houston LULAC, says his group is not involved in planning the event but he will attend as a guest.
Navarro says he’s not concerned about immigration agents crashing the party. In fact, when asked about it, he turned the matter into a joke, saying the weather forecast shows sunny skies, not ICE.
“We’re a very family-friendly event,” he said. “We’ll have the mayor’s Office of Special Events tactical team on site and 30 to 40 of Houston’s finest. I don’t think it’s going to get cold enough to get ice, if you know what I mean. If we have the threat of ice, we’ll just turn it into rain and do a little rain dance.”
