Human Flower Project

Monday, November 01, 2004

Campaigning with Marigolds

For Dia de los Muertos, the traditional cempasuchil flower flashes a radiant welcome across the veil of death. This year, protesters in Mexico City send a message to the living at the U.S. Embassy.

NDTV (India) reports that demonstrators in the Mexican capital spelled out “No to Bush” with mounds of blossoms Saturday in front of the U.S. Embassy.

“Mexicans prepare similar offerings as they honour the dead on November 1, when the souls of dead children are believed to return, and on November 2, when adults are believed to arrive.”

Cempasuchil flowers, much like the marigold, smell pungent and fix the eyes with oranges and yellows as high-beam as runways lights. For All Saints and All Souls Days (Nov. 1-2) these blooms are used on memorial altars (ofrendas) to draw back spirits of the dead, a tradition that combines Aztec ancestor worship and Roman Catholicism’s holidays of All Saints and All Souls days.

Over the past dozen or so years, this strong tradition has fanned from its place of origin, Southern Mexico, out across North America and other parts of the world both in personal tributes to the dead and, more recently, as a sensuous and compelling medium for all kinds of artistic and political expression.

According to NDTV, “Protesters hung art that incorporated images of Iraqi prisoners being abused. One sign labelled the US Embassy the ‘embassy of death.’”

Can anyone send us a photo of the protest?