Squirrel Hill comes alive with the dead

A giant altar, decorated with papier-mache flowers, wood carved-skeletons and ornamental monarch… A giant altar, decorated with papier-mache flowers, wood carved-skeletons and ornamental monarch butterflies served as a vibrant centerpiece for the celebration of the Mexican Day of the Dead at Mexico Lindo in Squirrel Hill. ‘Dia de los Muertos is definitely a day of rejoicing in Mexican culture,’ said shop co-owner Jean-Pierre Nutini. ‘Seeing a cadaver in Mexican lifestyle is much more common than in American lifestyle. The idea of skeletons jumping out and biting you is just not scary to Mexican kids.’ Mexico Lindo, located on Murray Avenue, constructed two traditional ofrendas, or altars, for the fourth consecutive year in memory of global citizens, Pittsburgh pioneers and military and civilians killed in the war in Iraq. The decorative skeletons and flowers surrounded portraits of Paul Newman, Sydney Pollack and Myron Cope. The shop invited community members to write a note to a deceased loved one on one of the shop’s ornamental butterflies, which hung on strands around the altar. Nutini, serving Mexican hot chocolate to visitors who stopped by the shop, elaborated on the customs of the Day of the Dead, which is traditionally celebrated during the first two days of November. ‘In the villages in Mexico, people offer food to their deceased loved ones: chicken, tequila, cigarettes if they like to smoke,’ said Nutini. ‘There’s competitiveness among women in the neighborhood for who is going to have a better display.’ Nutini said that traditional ofrendas and gravesites are decorated with living flowers rather than papier-mache and real candles rather than bulbs. He described street-side stores and stalls in Mexico, which construct ofrendas with offerings of plantains, fruit and coffee. Families decorate the gravesites of loved ones with flowers and photographs or articles of the deceased, believing that the souls of the dead return and are around them. Monarch butterflies are integral to Day of the Dead celebrations in Northern Mexico. Nutini said that the butterflies follow strict migration patterns from North America, returning to Northern Mexico on Nov. 1, the beginning of Dia de los Muertos. ‘People believe that they are the souls coming back to Mexico,’ said Nutini, gesturing toward the strands of monarchs dangling from the shop’s ceiling. ‘Anyone can be honored on Dia de los Muertos,’ said Nutini. ‘You might put your favorite singer, your favorite artist on an altar.’ He pointed to a picture of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo on one of the ofrendas. ‘I’ve seen pictures of Janet Jackson and Fiona Apple,’ said Nutini. ‘Some people take it a lot more seriously than others.’ The ofrenda installations are open to the public through Nov. 14.’ In a separate event, Mexico Lindo hosted a woodcarving demonstration by renowned traditional Mexican woodcarver Armando Jimenez Aragon last evening. With Nutini acting as a translator, Aragon described to the crowd the painstaking process required to create the brightly colored carvings. Aragon’s grandfather invented the art form of traditional Mexican woodcarvings. Aragon uses pieces of twisted wood to carve animals such as anteaters, opossums, lions, frogs and penguins. Aragon’s wife, Antonia, then paints the animals in vibrant reds, yellows, blues and oranges. ‘It takes about four to five hours to complete a wood carving,’ said Aragon through Nutini’s translation. ‘And then another six or seven days to paint. Between that, wood must lay in the sun to dry out the water.’