Dia de los muertos

Renacen los huertos,

tambien los muertos.  

El dia de los muertos

Por siete minutos

 podemos platicar

con los seres queridos fallecidos.[1]

 

I remember

tagging along,

chasing my abuela,[2]

To el camposanto,[3]

to sell paper flowers

to make the somber tombs bright.

That was back in Mexico.  

I was only seven years old.  

Here in the U.S.,

los muertos[4] are

personas non gratas.[5]  

Here we do not wish

to hold dialogue with los muertos.  

They remind us

We too will eventually join them.  

Here there is no luto[6]

And there are no novenas[7]

Or puños de tierra[8]

 Here in the U.S.,

the idea is to hide,

to ignore the dead,

And even to avoid death

in our conversations.  

In Mexico la muerte

is well known.  

She’s a talaca, a feminine figure.  

Our Puerto Rican

brothers and sisters

call her “la flaca.”[9]

Talking with the dead is necessary

to remind ourselves

to enjoy our lives

And not go about

as if we had already died,

And no one said good-bye or cried.

Abelardo B Delgado  From “Cool Salsa  Bilingual poems about growing up Latino in the US”  Lori Carter, Editor

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[1]   The orchards regenerate, and so do the dead.    On the Day of the Dead for seven minutes we can talk with our loved ones who have passed away.

[2]   grandmother

[3]  cemetery

[4]   the dead

[5]  (latin) unwelcome person

[6]   mourning or period of mourning

[7]   in this context, fervent prayer for the faithful dead

[8]   handfuls of earth

[9]   The skinny one