Downtown city streets transformed Saturday as Austin celebrated the 26th annual Viva La Vida Festival sponsored by the Mexic-Arte Museum.
Turning the corner of East Fifth Street, one could catch a glimpse of a number of diverse festival sights: a giant Frida Kahlo head lightly bouncing above a congregation of ornate skulls, painted faces, luchadores and paper mache skeletons. Even U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett came, perched atop a Cadillac with one hand waving to a lively crowd.
The Viva La Vida (“Long Live Life”) Festival marked the upcoming Dia de los Muertos holiday traditionally celebrated in Mexico and Latin America.
With roots in ancient Aztec culture, Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a gathering of friends and family to commemorate deceased relatives. This is typically conveyed with the construction of private alters decorated with gifts for the departed.
Though the holiday persists in predominantly Hispanic communities, the Mexic-Arte Museum annually exposes Austin to this lively, colorful and rich cultural tradition.
“Mexican American traditions have a universal theme ... honoring the dead and regenerating the past,” said Festival Coordinator Alexandra Landeros. “The whole [Mexic-Arte] museum is dedicated to this event.”
This year, the Mexic-Arte chose “life” as its central theme, presenting Dia de los Muertos as a celebration of life and environment through art and culture.
“A goal of the festival is to bring together a diverse range of groups and encourage participation,” Landeros said.
Visitors explored the holiday’s theme through a variety of activities including educational “sugar skull” and paper mache workshops, lectures and exhibitions.
For a more intimate experience, guests browsed personal altars commemorating local community members and heroes.
Each altar was a cultural masterpiece, aflame with heartfelt insight into the lives of individuals who had great impacts on the Austin community.
Additionally, the Mexic-Arte Museum exhibited traditional art from west Mexico featuring intricate replicas of ancient funerary artifacts.
Curious visitors were also supplied with activity booklets highlighting the history of the Dia de los Muertos and encouraged to participate in hands on activities, inspiring a valuable cross-cultural dialogue.
“We try to market to as many crowds as we can,” Landeros said. “We want this to be accessible for people regardless of their cultural background.”
The festival’s end was marked with a grand procession, departing from Saltillo square and marching through the streets of downtown Austin.
Hundreds of local artists, cyclists and excited community members embarked in a stream of color, throwing candy and small toys out to onlookers.
In an effort to raise awareness of environmental issues, floats and public art pieces were all constructed from recycled materials.
As the procession passed, Austin residents perched on apartment balconies beamed from above, and bystanders below smiled as they observed this unique celebration of the human cycle of life.
Such a response is all that Landeros could have asked for, as “people just having fun” was most certainly, “the best measure of success.”
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