I missed out on Halloween in LA again this year, but I ended up getting a bit of a taste of it down south in Mexico. Like WALT! I’ve always been a fan of the holiday, mostly for the trick or treaters, and until just a few years ago, the trick or treating! Yeah, IÂ was older than the average TOT and people laughed at me, but it has always been fun getting a chance to pester people at home and harass them for some goods. I was once chased off a porch by some old fart with threats of calling the police. He thought I was too old for candy and didn’t see the humor of me cursing his home and hexing the family with a year of bad luck. Serves him right. Then there’s that lady in Lincoln Heights that deliberately makes her house seem open for trick or treaters every year only to trap people with some BS about “Jesus injections”. My tirade against her was even more special, but let’s just leave it at that.
Now it must be said that many proper Chicanos and Mexicans see the spreading of the Halloween tradition down south as a form of Cultural Imperialism, and they claim it will displace the traditional practices of Dia de Muertos in the country. I disagre. Mexicans have taken the holiday and interpreted it in ways that fits their needs, making it their own. If anything the two different traditions have mingled to make it a season that the whole family can look forward to, instead of just the adults. Anyone that claims they “enjoyed” Dia de Muertos as a kid, which basically means going to the cemetary and watching the grandparents do their thing, is a fucking liar. Yeah, you heard me. I can appreciate it now as an adult but someones gotta stand up for the bored kids!
I’m gonna get some shit from the Chicano Militants about how wrong I am but they’ve been telling me that for a long time, y me vale. Halloween has made its way to Mexico and its going to stay. Make your piece with that aspect of a changing culture and your traditional practices will only get stronger. I’m more worried that it will disappear in LA with it becoming more of a party night for adults that want to play dressup WITH ABSOLUTELY NO TRICK OR TREATING INVOLVED! Or worst, just another consumer holiday where you buy all your props and costumes, and go to safe environments like the Shopping Maul to pretend to participate in an ancient tradition. Now that’s the sort of cultural imperialism I worry about. If you can’t be creative on Halloween you are hereby ordered to soap your own windows.
Ok, all that useless text just to show you some pics of some Trick or Treating in Patzcuaro, Mexico. A little late, yes, pero que se le puede hacer?
Dinero, dulces o trucos: queremos nuestro Halloween!
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