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CINDA CHAVICH
Special to the Globe and Mail
SAN ANTONIO, TEX. -- Tripping through San Antonio's San Fernando Cemetery is an eye-opener at this time of year, with the lines between a traditional Mexican fiesta and North America's Halloween oddly blurred. In a place where reverence usually rules, I'm struck by the strange juxtaposition of plastic Wal-Mart witches, bright floral arrangements and granite grave markers.
Unlike the more traditional Dias de los Muertos (Days of the Dead) in Latin American countries, what I'm experiencing here is bigger, splashier and has a decidedly U.S. twist. In this south Texas town, steeped as it is in Mexican culture and history, the weeks surrounding All Souls Day on Nov. 2 are a time to fete the dearly departed, with the spooky season running right through to mid-November.
I pass graves piled high with traditional marigolds -- and a religious portrait or two -- but there are also papier-mâché pumpkins, skulls and skeletons, and even the odd life-sized scarecrow popping up among the headstones.
"Halloween Headquarters" screams a Casper-esque spook-on-a-stake, set among glow-in-the-dark pumpkins atop one tomb. Inflated green witches with streaming tails twirl from trees, while throngs of extended families arrive for graveside picnics.
Francis Ortiz Schultschik, a third-generation Mexican American who is showing me around, says grave-decorating is a seasonal sport here -- Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter also bring out the balloons and streamers -- to the point that police are needed to direct the traffic that clogs cemetery roads.
But celebrations extend well below the graveyard. "It is a joyous occasion when the memory of ancestors and the continuity of life is celebrated," says a sign in a downtown restaurant window, where a couple of comical skeletons sit at a small table taking tea among candles, crucifixes and velvet paintings of the restaurant's deceased family and friends. "It is believed that at this time the souls of the departed return to visit the living. It is not a time of mourning, since the path back to the world must not be made slippery with tears."
Other local restaurants, such as Mi Tierra in the historic Mexican Market area of the city, turn out skeletal cakes and breads, as well as chocolate-infused mole sauces to celebrate the season. Local families often order the favourite meal of the deceased to mark their passing. Ponche dos Muertos -- a warm, spiced red wine punch reminiscent of mulled wine -- is also served everywhere, along with lots of tequila, and there is music, dancing and general merriment.
Traditionally, an ofrenda (altar) is built to memorialize someone who has died, whether it's a family member, a colleague, a community leader or a celebrity. Even pets are remembered in elaborate altars -- such as the shrine to a particular prized Doberman in a store window, complete with the dog's photos and portrait, bones, toys and cans of his favourite dog food.
You'll see ofrendas in restaurants and small businesses, in shop windows, galleries and museums 
throughout the city. In fact, building them has become something of an art form in San Antonio -- whether they're the shoe-box art projects of school kids displayed in the local mall, or huge installations in public buildings.
Last year, the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico -- the University of Mexico's international campus -- featured artistic altars dedicated to painter Frida Kahlo, strewn with marigold petals to guide her spirit home; and to Grand Prix driver Pedro Rodriguez, featuring a full-sized skeleton in an antique roadster and a few bottles of his favourite bubbly. An angel-studded sateen and lace edifice, constructed like a three-tired wedding cake, celebrated the life of Pope John Paul II.
Starting this November, media arts students at the Jump Start Performance Company are creating "video altars," while other artists are offering free altar-making workshops at venues such as the Centro Cultural Aztlan. On Nov. 2, an altar and musical celebration, dedicated to deceased conjunto musicians, will be held at the Conjunto Heritage Taller, and the public is encouraged to come to eat, drink, dance and honour their favourite musicians. A "coffin parade," meanwhile, is floating down San Antonio's famous River Walk today, along with continuing calavera processions in which participants dress as skeletons.
"It's a strange thing, a sort of irreverence that Mexicans have about death," says my guide, Schultschik,
as we head to the Bedoy's bakery in the mostly Mexican west-side neighbourhood in search of the rich "bread of the dead," with its decorative skulls and bones, pumpkin empanadas, spun-sugar skulls and other seasonal goodies. "But we believe that when you die, you're doing to come back every so often to nourish your soul."
WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK
Mi Tierra Café: 218 Produce Row; 210-225-1262; http://www.mitierracafe.com. This family-owned eatery serves chilaquiles (corn chips and scrambled eggs with ranchero sauce), enchiladas, menudo (tripe and hominy stew) and other casual fare.
Rosario's: 910 S. Alamo St.; 210-223-1806; http://www.rosariossa.com. Serves up fish tacos, ceviche and margaritas (and lively music).
Biga on the Banks: 203 S. St. Mary's St.; 210-225-0722; http://www.biga.com. Chef Bruce Auden serves inspired, fine regional cuisine such as Berkshire pork rubbed with achiote atop a plantain mash with habanero orange sauce and perfectly seared foie gras on a puffed, cranberry-filled sopapilla in a beautiful room along the historic River Walk.
Acenar: 146 E. Houston St.; http://www.acenar.com. Offers contemporary Tex-Mex creations like Tinga duck chalupas and watermelon mojitos.
WHERE TO STAY
Watermark Hotel and Spa: 212 W. Crockett St.; 1-800-785-1400; http://www.watermarkhotel.com. This boutique hotel along the River Walk is also home to the lovely Pesca restaurant. Room rates start at around $260 a night.
THINGS TO DO
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico: http://www.unam.mx.
Jump Start Performance Company: 210-227-5867; jump-start.org.
Centro Cultural Aztlan: 1800 Fredericksburg Rd., Deco Building, Suite 103; 210-432-1896.
MORE INFORMATION
San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau: sanantoniovisit.com.
(this story appeared in the Globe and Mail newspaper - fall 2006)
©Cinda Chavich
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LOCAL CULTURE: Halloween San Antonio style
Forget trick or treating: During the Days of the Dead, visitors to San Antonio can tour garlanded graveyards and snack on pumpkin empanadas
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photos by Cinda Chavich
