Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead … is a Latin American holiday celebrated across the U.S. where people remember their loved ones by creating altars in their honor.

Artists Cesar Viveros and his wife, Ana Guissel Palma, spent years documenting altars in South Philadelphia’s Mexican and Central American community …  That is until  … Ana became suddenly ill … and died in 2018 … shortly before the Day of the Dead.

Cesar came to StoryCorps with his niece, Kathy Lopez … to honor her. 

Transcript TRT: [2:23]

Kathy Lopez (KL) and Cesar Viveros (CV)

KL: How did you feel when you found out that Ana was sick? 

CV: She, uh, told me that she have a pain. And they told us, that she got cancer. And for two years, it was a constant fear of losing, ‘cause that’s the only way you can describe that. You will lose, or you will win.

KL: I do remember this one time that I was with my cousin and I think we went into your room and we grabbed some of the makeup that she had and I remember her walking in. And, um, she wasn’t upset. She told us how to put it on, what’s too much, what’s too little. She was sick. But it was like a nice little moment in between the three of us.

CV: What do you remember from the day she died? 

KL: I remember that I was scared, ‘cause I never experienced a death in the family. But, I was called out to translate for the paramedics… and, I didn’t know that that role existed, of being so strong for somebody.

CV: When she died, I could see her face was so relaxed, almost like a smile. That moment, I felt like, unable to move, even unable to think. And then it was Day of the Dead.

KL: But because of her, we knew how to make a traditional altar. And when we had to do one for her at home, we had her favorite soup. And when we woke up, my mom was like, ‘Kati, mira.’

And then we looked at the soup, and the soup went down. We checked the Saran Wrap, and it was perfectly sealed the same way that we left it. And, we had that warm feeling of knowing that she actually did stop by. 

CV: I want to believe that she’s coming for these two days, and I want to impress her. With all these flowers: romerito, la flor de muerto, and food: chocolatito, los chiles rellenos. 

There is a picture that I, I always like to put on the altar. It’s a picture of her when she was younger, and it says, ‘As long as you remember me, I will be eternal.’ Mientras me recuerden, viviré por siempre.

[TAPE]

BACK ANNOUNCE:

That’s Cesar Viveros and Kathy Lopez remembering Ana Guissel Palma at StoryCorps in Philadelphia. 

Their conversation is archived in the Library of Congress.