FRESNO, Calif. – Every first and second of November, millions of people around the world honor their dead loved ones.
A special flower is at the center of it all. Known as the cempasúchil – or marigold – the flower is a staple of the annual tradition known as Dia de los Muertos.
The flower dates back to pre-Hispanic Mexican culture, where it was – and still is – a symbol of life and death.
Margarita Amador grows hundreds of them in her backyard just southeast of Fresno.
“Their smell is unique and special. Every morning when I open my back door, the house smells beautiful,” Amador says in Spanish.
She says the cempasúchil symbolizes eternal love. Every year, she builds an altar to remember her parents using the very flowers she grows.
“This is a very special season for me,” she says, “the flowers I grow are grown with much love for [my parents].”
The cempasúchil is the main item on the altars, commonly known as “ofrendas” or offerings. The flower is laid beside pictures of loved ones, some of their favorite foods or memorabilia.
The strong earthy smell of the cempasúchil is believed to guide the spirits to the offerings.
For Amador, who for five years has been growing the flower, having it available and being able to provide it to those who need it this time of year is an offering of her own.
The flowers can be found in stores or street corners. But Amador grows her flowers from seeds a friend brought to her directly from her native Oaxaca, Mexico, where Amador says she “grew up among the flowers.” She starts planting in July, to have the flowers ready by late October.
At her home now, butterflies and bees fly over the gardens where the flowers are slowly disappearing as people stop by to buy them.
Her husband helps her manage their front yard sale, where they have bouquets of cempasúchil between $5 and $20 a piece. They’ll be gone by Saturday, she says.
Amador is a farmworker, but work in the fields tends to be slow this time of year, so her time is spent tending to her cempasúchil gardens.
Last year, Amador says a family asked to buy all of her flowers to decorate a quinceanera. It took Amador by surprise, since the flower is typically reserved to celebrate the dead. But this party was different, since it fell on Dia de los Muertos. It wasn’t just a birthday celebration, but also a celebration of relatives who had transcended into another life. Altars were made for them and displayed for guests.
Amador’s flowers helped bring the living and dead together for one night.
“I never thought my flowers would be in such a big place,” she says.
Amador says she’ll continue growing the flowers for as long as she’s able to.
It doesn’t just help her, she says. She grows vegetables in her backyard, too, and says the presence of the flowers have even started to repel disease from some of her chilis and squash.
That a flower meant to mark remembrance of loved ones replenishes even living things makes the sight of the cempasúchil that more special.
“I feel like it renews you, and it motivates you – to see the beauty of the flowers,” Amador says.
Dia de los Muertos events
On Nov. 1, Fresno City College will host a Dia de los Muertos event on campus from 9 to 2 p.m. Ofrendas created by different college offices and departments will be on display until the end of the week in the library foyer.
On Nov. 2, the Historic Union Cemetery in Bakersfield will host its Dia de los Muertos events. Music, art and dancing will start from 2 to 9 p.m.
Also on Nov. 2, the small town of Hornitos, in Mariposa County, will host its annual Dia de los Muertos event. After events in the town plaza, visitors will participate in a candlelight procession to visit the historic St. Catherine’s Church and cemetery up the hill.
