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Even the Spanish conquistadors couldn’t prevent Mexicans from
celebrating El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), the festival
which usually includes drinking, dancing, and eating sugar skulls
decorated with the names of the dead – and on Tuesday the 25th, we
were no exception. While families in Mexico often head to the
cemetery to drink tequila with their dead friends, we headed instead
to the God’s Love We Deliver benefit at Rocking Horse Cafe where
there was plenty of tequila (and particularly in the spiced apple
margaritas) along with seared tuna on plantain chips and an
abundance of the exceptional chipotle salsa and homemade chips for
which Rocking Horse is known. All this libation and ladling was
designed to loosen the tongues and wallets for the silent and live
auctions (this year conducted by a representative from Sotheby’s).
Because when the celebrants of El Dia de los Muertos are not
drinking at the graveyards or eating sugar skulls, they’re building
altars in their homes to honor the dead, surrounding them with
flowers, candles, photographs, and mementoes. And for the past nine
years, the Rocking Horse Cafe has been working with local and
national artists who create altars which adorn the restaurant’s
walls, and are then auctioned off to benefit God’s Love We Deliver.
Invariably, some altars are more successful than others – and always
there’s usually one altar designed to shock the restaurant’s
patrons. This year’s shock altar was the nearly-pulsing wax vulva,
complete with straggly rows of pubic hair, and while some saw
parallels to Magritte, others found it simply disturbing. Apart from
Pulsing Vulva, there were altars which utilized the concept of white
light, and one emphasizing the spirituality of a single feather.
Another honored a fallen soldier. And there was also a rotary phone
skeletal altar and a jewel-encrusted Buddha altar and an altar to
fast food. In all, there were over forty altars, this year including
work from artists such as Paul Shore, Richard Pitts, Lisa Krivaka,
Diane Arrieta, Alex Koh, Philip Ward and Jacqueline Ohnhold – and at
evening’s end, the majority of the altars had sold – and four of
them to us. All it took was a little cajoling from a fellow artist –
and the next morning, we’re getting a congratulatory phone call.
Eeeks, the checkbook – but never mind, it’s all good. Because every
day, God’s Love We Deliver delivers 3,000 meals, free of charge to
those in need, and there’s something gratifying about bidding on
altars to celebrate El Dia de los Muertos (even in an altered state)
in order that other people might live and be well. (And no, we did
not score the winning bid for Pulsing Vulva.)
Best always,
Mark and Robert
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