Kristy Ram­nar­ine

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

When the Mex­i­can Em­bassy in­vit­ed guests to dress as catri­nas and catrins—the el­e­gant skele­tal fig­ures that em­body Mex­i­co’s dis­tinc­tive re­la­tion­ship with death—or­gan­is­ers were pleas­ant­ly sur­prised by the en­thu­si­as­tic re­sponse.

Dozens ar­rived in full cos­tume, their faces in­tri­cate­ly paint­ed and adorned with flo­ral head­pieces and co­or­di­nat­ed at­tire. Both women and men em­braced the spir­it of the oc­ca­sion, cap­tur­ing the colour, cre­ativ­i­ty, and sym­bol­ism of one of Mex­i­co’s most cel­e­brat­ed cul­tur­al tra­di­tions.

Mex­i­can Am­bas­sador Víc­tor Hugo Morales Melén­dez thanked at­ten­dees for their pres­ence at the No­vem­ber 1 event.

“I know these are dif­fi­cult times. Thank you for be­ing here. This is a very spe­cial day for the Em­bassy of Mex­i­co in Trinidad and To­ba­go, be­cause we cel­e­brate one of the most rel­e­vant cul­tur­al tra­di­tions, one deeply felt and lived by the Mex­i­can peo­ple. The close­ness of the Mex­i­can peo­ple to death be­comes a pre­text for the cel­e­bra­tion of life.”

The Am­bas­sador paid trib­ute to those who lost their lives in re­cent floods in Mex­i­co, ex­tend­ing con­do­lences to their fam­i­lies. He al­so ex­pressed sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of Ja­maica, Cu­ba, Haiti, the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, and the Ba­hamas.

“From Trinidad and To­ba­go, our deep­est con­do­lences to the fam­i­lies of the de­ceased. We ex­press our sol­i­dar­i­ty in the face of these tragedies.”

High­light­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of the oc­ca­sion, the Am­bas­sador re­mind­ed guests that the Day of the Dead is one of Mex­i­co’s most cher­ished and recog­nis­able tra­di­tions.

“The Day of the Dead has be­come a pop­u­lar tra­di­tion present in every Mex­i­can home and has gained world­wide recog­ni­tion. In 2003, UN­ESCO de­clared it an In­tan­gi­ble Cul­tur­al Her­itage of Hu­man­i­ty. On No­vem­ber 1 and 2, homes, ceme­ter­ies, mar­kets, and plazas across Mex­i­co are filled with a spe­cial feel­ing as we re­mem­ber our de­part­ed loved ones.”

He de­scribed the cel­e­bra­tion as “a song of life,” em­pha­sis­ing that re­mem­ber­ing loved ones keeps their pres­ence alive.

“I ask you all to re­mem­ber your de­part­ed loved ones, and thus per­pet­u­ate their pres­ence in your hearts. Ap­pre­ci­ate this trib­ute to death, to give con­ti­nu­ity to life.”

The Em­bassy was beau­ti­ful­ly adorned with tra­di­tion­al pa­pel pic­a­do and colour­ful Mex­i­can pa­per flow­ers, cen­tring around an ofren­da—an al­tar rep­re­sent­ing of­fer­ings of food, drink, and flow­ers to the de­part­ed, sym­bol­i­cal­ly wel­com­ing them from the world of the dead.

This year’s al­tar ho­n­oured Guadalupe “Pi­ta” Amor, a cel­e­brat­ed po­et known for her in­domitable spir­it and ex­pres­sive pow­er, and Ale­jan­dro Muñoz Moreno, the leg­endary Mex­i­can wrestler bet­ter known as Blue De­mon, an icon of lucha li­bre.

Guests were treat­ed to a feast of au­then­tic Mex­i­can flavours, in­clud­ing tacos de canas­ta pre­pared by Verni Paul of the Em­bassy, tacos from Chimichangas, and tra­di­tion­al pan de muer­to baked by Fed­eri­co Are­na­ga. Fresh­ly made chur­ros from the Chur­ros Fac­to­ry of Lili Toral, along with Häa­gen-Dazs ice cream and Tequi­la 1800 pro­vid­ed by Massy Dis­tri­b­u­tion, com­plet­ed the culi­nary ex­pe­ri­ence.

The evening al­so fea­tured cul­tur­al per­for­mances that brought the essence of Día de los Muer­tos to life. Nali­ni Akal, di­rec­tor of N9 Dance Com­pa­ny, de­liv­ered two ex­pres­sive dance per­for­mances in­spired by the hol­i­day—her third year par­tic­i­pat­ing in the event.

Adding a thrilling twist, Tony Cer­vantes and his team en­er­gised the au­di­ence with a dy­nam­ic lucha li­bre wrestling dis­play, pay­ing homage to one of Mex­i­co’s most icon­ic art forms.