Kansas City families go all out with altars honoring loved ones for Day of the Dead
Since the death of their father in 2019, Nadia Damien and her sisters have paid tribute to his memory with a Dia de los Muertos altar.
Such displays are traditionally adored with candles, flowers, incense, candies, liquor and pictures of the dead. But this year the siblings wanted to craft an altar that truly represented the personality of their father, Francisco Contreras, who died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“We didn’t want the traditional look, so we decided since my dad was a carpenter, we took these old wooden tables, painted them and put stuff like his tools, playing cards and hat up on it,” says Damien. “He died of ALS so we put his hospital bracelets on there and this floor tiling that reminded us of his childhood home in Mexico.”
Damien and her two sisters grew up knowing the altars were a yearly custom in Contreras’ homeland of Mexico, but the family never embraced the tradition until his death.
“The holiday for us is to keep his memory alive, a way to honor our dad’s life and celebrate who he was as a person,” she says.
Though Dia de los Muertos celebrations traditionally span Nov. 1 to 2, the Mattie Rhodes Center started early with its 25th annual Day of the Dead altar exhibition, which opened Oct. 6.
The altars take a subject usually viewed as dark or morbid and transform it into something festive.
Macio Palacio and his family’s altar, built in the trunk of his 1973 El Camino, won the people’s choice award at the exhibtion’s opening.
“It is hard to put words to something that means so much,” says Palacio, a 46-year-old Kansas City native. “It is a blessing to just be recognized, and we feel blessed to be able to do it.”
The altar was a collective effort of the Palacio family to pay respects to the many family members no longer with them. Among those being honored were Palacio’s two brothers who were killed due to gun violence, his nephew who died from cancer and his grandmother.
“We dedicated it to everyone,” he says. “Every day we remember them, but the holiday brings it out more and it just means a lot for us to get together and to be able to remember our family.”
Damien’s sister, Cristina Contreras, thinks the tradition is a great outlet for grieving. Contreras sees the weeks of planning the altar as a way to not only reconnect with the dead, but with one another.
“We have three girls with different personalities,” says Contreras, “so there was a lot of sitting together to brainstorm what vision we wanted and how we want to tell his story.”
The sisters stacked three wooden tables on top of one another to create a layered display. In front of the largest table is a framed note handwritten in Spanish by their father that translates to, “You have to enjoy the time to make the family feel good, that’s good for us to be happy.”
The Mattie Rhodes exhibit will conclude Nov. 6 with a parade featuring a band playing traditional Mexican music, dancers and families walking in the procession holding photos of dead relatives.
Contreras is happy she and her sisters could participate in the exhibit for the second year and on a day of particular importance for the family.
“It was my dad’s birthday the opening night so it was a little bittersweet not being able to celebrate it with him here, but we did get to celebrate in a different way,” she says.
For Palacio, even with the weeks of planning and hard work that went into transforming the trunk of his lowrider into a massive altar, the toughest part was seeing the result.
“Just looking at it when it was complete and just knowing that we have this many people in our family that are not here is really hard,” says Palacio. “They’re no longer here so it’s our job to make sure that everyone knows their presence still lives on with us as a family.”
Other Dia de los Muertos events
▪Mattie Rhodes Center Dia de los Muertos exhibit. Noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays until Nov. 6., 1701 Jarboe St. Free. mattierhodes.org
▪Kansas City Museum 10th annual Dia de los Muertos Celebration, 5 to 9 p.m. Oct. 21, museum’s east lawn at 3218 Gladstone Blvd. Cost of admission is a donation of any amount. kansascitymuseum.org
▪ Guadalupe Centers’ the Original Dia de los Muertos Celebration, 5 to 9 p.m. Oct. 27, 1015 Avenida Cesar E. Chavez. Free. guadalupecenters.org
▪ Crossroads Hotel Dia de los Muertos La Fiesta, 6 to 10 p.m. Oct. 27, 2101 Central St. Free. crossroadshotelkc.com
▪ Taqueria La Nueva Overland Park Dia de los Muertos Celebration, 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 29, 12561 Antioch Road. Overland Park. Free to enter. taquerialanueva.com
▪ Disney/Pixar’s Coco in Concert, performed by the Orquesta Folclorico Nacional de Mexico, 7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 3, Folly Theater, 300 W. 12th St. Tickets available at tickets.hjseries.org
▪ Dia de los Muertos on Central Avenue, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Nov. 4, 1120 Central Ave. Free. cabakck.org
▪ Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s Dia de los Muertos Festival, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 5, 4532 Rockhill Road. Free. nelson-atkins.org
Includes reporting by The Star’s Dan Kelly.
