She lost 7 loved ones to COVID-19. This Dia de Muertos, she’ll honor their lives with a special altar at Seattle Center

“Family is everything.”

That is the family motto that Ramona Flores-Cavázos heard – “Family is everything”.

When she lost seven family members and close friends to COVID-19 that same year, Flores-Cavázos and her family were devastated.

An uncle. A brother. A sister-in-law. A cousin. Several close friends.

Flores-Cavázos still cries when she talks about it.

Her brother and sister-in-law Conrado and Rosa Flores, both 73, had been married for 55 years when they took their last breath hand in hand in a hospital in Yakima last summer.

“We let our loved ones pass. We are not unfamiliar with this, but losing seven in a year is absolutely unknown. ”

When the Dia de Muertos Festival Seattle (DDMFS) committee heard the story of Flores-Cavázos, they invited her to erect an altar at the annual Seattle Center Dia de Muertos Festival to honor loved ones and others who had spent the two years lost due to COVID-19 of the pandemic.

Celebrated on November 1st and 2nd of each year, Dia de Muertos, also known as the day of the dead (or Day of the Dead) was created in Mexico to remember, honor and celebrate the deceased. Filled with family, food, and sharing happy memories of the deceased, it’s not a gloomy holiday, but a celebration of death as a natural part of life.

Flores-Cavázos and the DDMFS committee use “Dia de Muertos” to honor the holiday’s pre-Hispanic roots.

Growing up in east Washington, Flores-Cavázos didn’t see many Dia de Muertos festivals, but after moving to Seattle in the early 1980s, she saw and was drawn to community centers hosting the festival.

“I love the fact that it celebrates and honors the memory of our loved ones. It’s a very nice tradition, ”she said. “For us, death is not a cause for fear. We all go through it. It’s only part of life, if you will. “

As the festivals grew over the years from small gatherings at someone’s home to large city venues such as the Seattle Center and El Centro de la Raza, Dia de Muertos gained prominence for Flores-Cavázos as well.

“With increasing age, it becomes more and more important. The older we get and more family members die, the more important it becomes to us, ”she said. “[And] it has gained much more importance in recent years. ”

This year, in memory of the seven families and friends they lost to COVID-19, Flores-Cavázos and her daughter will assemble an altar in the Fisher Pavilion in Seattle Center with traditional decorations of the centuries-old holiday – sugar skulls, bright orange flowers, known as “flowers of the dead” (or cempasúchil), colorful paper strings with intricately cut patterns (papel picado), candles and photos of deceased relatives.

For a personal touch, they’ll add some Seahawks paraphernalia for all Seahawks fans in the family and pan de muerto (bread of the dead) which they think everyone in their family loves.

Flores-Cavázos still cries when she talks about the invitation from DDMFS.

Seattle Center is a special place for your family. Her father, who died many years ago, loved attending the Seattle Center festivals. Attending the annual Fiestas Patrias festival, which celebrates the independence of several Latin American countries, has become a tradition for her family. Her granddaughter now performs annually in Mexican folk dance group Joyas Mestizas at several Seattle Center events, the same youth dance group that her daughters belonged to when they were younger.

Flores-Cavázos will also volunteer for the festival teaching a course on making paper cempasúchil for Dia de Muertos. Although she has volunteered at Dia de Muertos festivals across the city in recent years, her volunteer work this year is a way to capture the memory of loved ones and come to terms with their grief.

“In recent years, Dia de Muertos has become even more important to us because of the fragility of life,” she said. “We all know death is a part of life, but having seven family members and friends in the same year really shows how fragile life is.”

This year, Flores-Cavázos recalls the overwhelming loss her family has suffered over the past two years and recalls the last time her entire family got together for a reunion.

“It’s a memory that brings a smile to my face and warmth to my heart,” she said.

Every two years, Flores-Cavázos has helped organize a family reunion that brings together nearly 200 of their extended families from across the country. They dance, they sing, they eat.

In the past 20 or 30 years, the reunions have long outgrown their grandfather’s house in east Washington. What was once a picnic in the park turned into a three-day picnic and dance event.

The last reunion took place in 2018. They haven’t had one since then because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Flores-Cavázos isn’t sure when or if they’ll have one again.

Flores-Cavázos, once a driving force behind the reunions, isn’t sure she has the heart to plan it further.

“My uncle, brother, and sister-in-law were really crucial in getting this going,” she said. “I don’t think I have what it takes to do it again after losing so many people.”

But she doesn’t give it up entirely. She has already reached out to other family members in hopes that they will take the reins when the pandemic subsides. She hopes that others who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 will also accept the message of Dia de Muertos and find ways to move on.

“Hug it. Accept tradition for what it is – to honor our loved ones, ”she said. “You know that our loved ones don’t want us to be sad. They want us to continue to live, love and be there for one another. We must go on with our lives, honoring their memory and honoring their life by living the way they would like us to live. ”

“Life is so fragile,” she said.

Day of the Dead at the Seattle Center

Altars on display 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. Oct. 30-Nov. 7, Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center, 305 Harrison St., Seattle; for free. Virtual presentation on October 31 at 12 o’clock; seattlecenter.com.

Crystal Paul:
cpaul@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @cplhouse. Crystal Paul is a reporter for the Seattle Times. She is interested in stories about the people, places and stories that capture the soul of their communities.

https://www.seattletimes.com/life/she-lost-7-loved-ones-to-covid-19-this-dia-de-muertos-shell-honor-their-lives-with-a-special-altar-at-seattle-center/