Arts and Culture

Día de los Muertos Festivities in Oakland Bring in Crowds of Celebrants

On Oct. 22, the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) held its annual celebration at 10th and Fallon streets while the Unity Council held a street festival on International Boulevard and Fruitvale Avenue last Sunday. Coinciding with Halloween, Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, dates back to traditions established by the indigenous peoples of America that fused, over time, with the Catholic beliefs brought by Spanish conquistadors.

Published

2 years ago

November 7, 2023

Magaly Muñoz

A community altar including framed photos of the deceased among marigolds and candles at the Oakland Museum on Oct. 22, 2023. Photo by Eva Ortega

By Eva Ortega and
Magaly Muñoz,
Post Staff

In a haze of incense smoke, flickering candles and bright orange marigolds, Oakland outdid itself with two weekends of Día de los Muertos observances that were both solemn and festive.

On Oct. 22, the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) held its annual celebration at 10^th and Fallon streets while the Unity Council held a street festival on International Boulevard and Fruitvale Avenue last Sunday.

Coinciding with Halloween, Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, dates back to traditions established by the indigenous peoples of America that fused, over time, with the Catholic beliefs brought by Spanish conquistadors.

Though it has primarily Mexican roots, it is also celebrated in parts of Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and other countries.

Its components are also recognized as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations.

As they performed the ancient dance of the dead, the fragrant smoke of copal wafted over the Ollin Anahuac Traditional Aztec Dance group who were the stars of the opening ceremony at the Oakland Museum’s 29^th Annual Día de los Muertos Community Celebration.

Despite wind and light rain, a sizeable crowd came out to view altars created by local groups, including students from Bret Harte Middle School, Richmond High School and Black Girls Excellence from Montera Middle School.

A vintage car becomes the site for an ofrenda at “Blooming Resistance,” the Unity Council’s 28th Día de los Muertos Festival on Oct. 29, 2023. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

A variety of performances also took place throughout the day, including by award-winning artist Gabriela Sepúlveda and notable poets Tino V. H., Jr., Briana Victoria Leung and Camila Elizabet Aguirre Aguilar.

Aguilar captivated listeners with an emotional performance dedicated to Vanessa Guillen, the 20-year-old army soldier whose 2020 murder sparked protests across the country.

“Oral storytelling is in our blood, and we’ve practiced this for hundreds, thousands of years,” Aguilar said. “When we have youth murdered that are indigenous to this content…women, it is important that we call attention to the powers and structures that cause [violence] and that we continue with the traditions of resistance and honoring the dead.”

While rain had depressed the numbers at the Oakland Museum celebration, the sun was bright on Sunday in the Fruitvale for “Blooming Resistance,” the 28^th such Día de los Muertos Festival.

The street was covered with brightly colored streamers and flowers and lined with vendors and informational booths.

Altares with photos and ofrendas could be seen at every corner of the festival. Many had personal notes from family, favorite foods of the deceased loved one and symbols that represent them.

Iliana Vasquez, who was hired by The Unity Council to help organize the event, expected a larger crowd than previous years and hoped to attract more than the usual 100,000 attendees.

“For me, the community is my main focus. I hope they’re there to have a good time with their families,” Vasquez said.

Food vendors crowded the streets, selling tacos, fruit, aguas frescas and most notably pan de muerto or ‘bread of the dead.’ This sweet bread is meant to resemble bones and is a vital part in the offerings used for the altars. It is used to lure souls to visit their loved ones.

Another staple in Día de los Muertos is the cempazúchitl, or marigold flowers that adorn the altars.

Rocio Plate was one of the many vendors who sold the marigolds, but instead of just selling them as a simple bouquet, she fashioned them into crosses and crowns and bunched them up into vases.

Resident Robert Berger says cultural events such as the one at OMCA are what brought him to Oakland almost a decade ago. He and his partner also attend the festival in Fruitvale every year.

“It’s what creates hope for the future amidst a lot of turmoil and it’s really what brought us to Oakland in the first place, being so eclectic, diverse and enriching,” Berger said. “If you don’t participate in them, you’re really missing out on a lot.”

Those who have missed both of Oakland’s Día de los Muertos events can still view OMCA’s “In Remembrance of Our Ancestors” installation that showcases how Día de los Muertos emerged as the holiday many recognize today. It will run until Nov. 26.

Eva Ortega is part of the Community Media journalism class at San Francisco State University.

Magaly Muñoz

A graduate of Sacramento State University, Magaly Muñoz’s journalism experience includes working for the State Hornet, the university’s student-run newspaper and conducting research and producing projects for “All Things Considered” at National Public Radio. She also was a community reporter for El Timpano, serving Latino and Mayan communities, and contributed to the Sacramento Observer, the area’s African American newspaper.

Muñoz is one of 40 early career journalists who are part of the California Local News Fellowship program, a state-funded initiative designed to strengthen local news reporting in California, with a focus on underserved communities.

The fellowship program places journalism fellows throughout the state in two-year, full-time reporting positions.

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Magaly Muñoz

A graduate of Sacramento State University, Magaly Muñoz’s journalism experience includes working for the State Hornet, the university’s student-run newspaper and conducting research and producing projects for “All Things Considered” at National Public Radio. She also was a community reporter for El Timpano, serving Latino and Mayan communities, and contributed to the Sacramento Observer, the area’s African American newspaper. Muñoz is one of 40 early career journalists who are part of the California Local News Fellowship program, a state-funded initiative designed to strengthen local news reporting in California, with a focus on underserved communities. The fellowship program places journalism fellows throughout the state in two-year, full-time reporting positions.

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Activism

New Oakland Moving Forward

This week, several socially enterprising members of this group visited Oakland to explore ways to collaborate with local stakeholders at Youth Empowerment Partnership, the Port of Oakland, Private Industry Council, Oakland, Mayor-elect Barbara Lee, the Oakland Ballers ownership group, and the oversight thought leaders in the Alameda County Probation Department.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Post Staff

Since the African American Sports and Entertainment Group purchased the City of Oakland’s share of the Alameda County Coliseum Complex, we have been documenting the positive outcomes that are starting to occur here in Oakland.

Some of the articles in the past have touched on actor Blair Underwood’s mission to breathe new energy into the social fabric of Oakland. He has joined the past efforts of Steph and Ayesha Curry, Mistah Fab, Green Day, Too Short, and the Oakland Ballers.

This week, several socially enterprising members of this group visited Oakland to explore ways to collaborate with local stakeholders at Youth Empowerment Partnership, the Port of Oakland, Private Industry Council, Oakland, Mayor-Elect Barbara Lee, the Oakland Ballers ownership group, and the oversight thought leaders in the Alameda County Probation Department.

These visits represent a healthy exchange of ideas and plans to resuscitate Oakland’s image. All parties felt that the potential to impact Oakland is right in front of us. Most recently, on the back side of these visits, the Oakland Ballers and Blair Underwood committed to a 10-year lease agreement to support community programs and a community build-out.

So, upward and onward with the movement of New Oakland.

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

BOOK REVIEW: Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy

When Bridgett M. Davis was in college, her sister Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

Published

1 month ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Love Rita Book Cover. Courtesy of Harper.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Bridgett M. Davis, c.2025, Harper, $29.99, 367 Pages

Take care.

Do it because you want to stay well, upright, and away from illness. Eat right, swallow your vitamins and hydrate, keep good habits and hygiene, and cross your fingers. Take care as much as you can because, as in the new book, “Love, Rita” by Bridgett M. Davis, your well-being is sometimes out of your hands.

It was a family story told often: when Davis was born, her sister, Rita, then four years old, stormed up to her crying newborn sibling and said, ‘Shut your … mouth!’

Rita, says Davis, didn’t want a little sister then. She already had two big sisters and a neighbor who was somewhat of a “sister,” and this baby was an irritation. As Davis grew, the feeling was mutual, although she always knew that Rita loved her.

Over the years, the sisters tried many times not to fight — on their own and at the urging of their mother — and though division was ever present, it eased when Rita went to college. Davis was still in high school then, and she admired her big sister.

She eagerly devoured frequent letters sent to her in the mail, signed, “Love, Rita.”

When Davis was in college herself, Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

First, they lost their father. Drugs then invaded the family and addiction stole two siblings. A sister and a young nephew were murdered in a domestic violence incident. Their mother was devastated; Rita’s lupus was an “added weight of her sorrow.”

After their mother died of colon cancer, Rita’s lupus took a turn for the worse.

“Did she even stand a chance?” Davis wrote in her journal.

“It just didn’t seem possible that she, someone so full of life, could die.”

Let’s start here: once you get past the prologue in “Love, Rita,” you may lose interest. Maybe.

Most of the stories that author Bridgett M. Davis shares are mildly interesting, nothing rare, mostly commonplace tales of growing up in the 1960s and ’70s with a sibling. There are a lot of these kinds of stories, and they tend to generally melt together. After about fifty pages of them, you might start to think about putting the book aside.

But don’t. Not quite yet.

In between those everyday tales, Davis occasionally writes about being an ailing Black woman in America, the incorrect assumptions made by doctors, the history of medical treatment for Black people (women in particular), attitudes, and mythologies. Those passages are now and then, interspersed, but worth scanning for.

This book is perhaps best for anyone with the patience for a slow-paced memoir, or anyone who loves a Black woman who’s ill or might be ill someday. If that’s you and you can read between the lines, then “Love, Rita” is a book to take in carefully.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Faces Around the Bay: Author Karen Lewis Took the ‘Detour to Straight Street’

“My life has been a roller-coaster with an unlimited ride wristband! I was raised in Berkeley during the time of Ron Dellums, the Black Panthers, and People’s Park. I was a Hippie kid, my Auntie cut off all our hair so we could wear the natural styles like her and Angela Davis.

Published

1 month ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Karen Lewis. Courtesy photo.

By Barbara Fluhrer

I met Karen Lewis on a park bench in Berkeley. She wrote her story on the spot.

I got married young, then ended up getting divorced, raising two boys into men. After my divorce, I had a stroke that left me blind and paralyzed. I was homeless, lost in a fog with blurred vision.

Jesus healed me! I now have two beautiful grandkids. At 61, this age and this stage, I am finally free indeed. Our Lord Jesus Christ saved my soul. I now know how to be still. I lay at his feet. I surrender and just rest. My life and every step on my path have already been ordered. So, I have learned in this life…it’s nice to be nice. No stressing, just blessings. Pray for the best and deal with the rest.

Nobody is perfect, so forgive quickly and love easily!”

Lewis’ book “Detour to Straight Street” is available on Amazon.