San Francisco’s well-known Día de Los Muertos (opens in new tab) celebration takes place Sunday in the Mission, drawing tens of thousands of revelers and paying loving tribute to the deceased. But on Saturday, another Day of the Dead street party (opens in new tab) happened in an unlikely place: the Tenderloin.
In spite of the threat of immigration raids that have disproportionately hit the state’s Latino and Hispanic communities, the mood was jubilant and mostly apolitical.
Hundreds of people filled a three-block stretch of Golden Gate Avenue for an afternoon and evening of Aztec dances, mariachi performers, and lucha libre.
Vendors sold pupusas, aguas frescas, and masks painted to look like skulls. There was a ceremonial altar, or “ofrenda,” set up for passersby to pay their respects, and a children’s area complete with a petting zoo populated by rabbits, goats, and ducks.
Having outfitted his 15-year-old donkey, Mikey, with saddlebags stocked with yellow and orange marigolds, JC Camarena of Half Moon Bay posed for pictures with delighted onlookers. The flowers’ bright colors and strong fragrance, he said, are traditionally meant to attract the souls of the dead back to their homes.
Mikey seemed amenable to being pet between his ears and unbothered by the mariachi trumpet, but wary of dogs. “Donkeys have excellent hearing,” Camarena said, “and they can sense bad energy.”
After an April street fair celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, Saturday’s street fair was the Tenderloin’s second event of the year intended to acknowledge the neighborhood’s diverse ethnic makeup. To make it happen, event production company Into the Streets teamed up with the Civic Joy Fund and other community organizations, as it has with so many other outdoor activations in and around downtown.
Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the area, said the Tenderloin’s substantial Latino population is often overlooked.
Calling Dia de Muertos a “neighborhood celebration, now supercharged by the city,” he added that the next event in the series will honor the Vietnamese community of nearby Little Saigon in the spring.
Mayor Daniel Lurie was on hand as well. Having won plaudits last week for working to forestall a planned operation by ICE and the National Guard in San Francisco, he said the need for solidarity had not diminished.
“I have to show up and make sure that people feel safe to practice their traditions,” he said. “This is an important day for not just the Latino community, but our city.”
