National Museum honors earthquake victims, Chicago heroes on Dia de Muertos

CHICAGO - The National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen is celebrating Dia de Muertos for the 37th year. The exhibit remembers thousands of people who died this year in earthquakes in Turkey, Syria, and Morocco. The local community also lost dear friends whose lives and work are celebrated.

A commissioned piece, made entirely out of colored paper, includes photographs of victims of the earthquakes, while incorporating Middle Eastern cultural symbols in the artwork. There are multiple altars designed to memorialize loved ones.

A leader in Chicago's Puerto Rican Community, Myrna Salazar died this year at age 75. Her daughters created an ofrenda to tell the story of her life. She served under six Chicago mayors, beginning with Jane Byrne. A photograph of the two of them depicts two powerful women.

Cesáreo Moreno, Visual Arts Director & Chief Curator at the museum said Salazar was a powerhouse in Chicago's Puerto Rican community and promoted theater and the arts. She brought people together through her work at Chicago Latino Theater Alliance.

Another Chicago woman honored is Guadalupe Jimenez. Moreno said Chicagoans would recognize her name as a popular neighborhood grocer.

"This ofrenda installation by her family sort of resembles that early first little store that she and her husband started in Chicago. Every neighborhood has a mom and pop store, right? And now of course, the name is a well-known grocery store chain in the Chicagoland area," Moreno said.

The museum encourages visitors to think about the ofrenda they might set up in their own homes in honor of loved ones who have passed away.

"The most important thing is to make it your own. We put up photographs we tell stories, we put their favorite things, their favorite foods is always, always important. And it really is mostly about telling their stories. It's about sharing the things we remember. It's about teaching the next generation about what that person did for them. And it's really a way of keeping them alive in our family even though they're not with us any longer at the end," Moreno said.

The exhibit runs through December 10th. The National Museum of Mexican Art is hosting multiple events to share the spirit of Dia de Muertos.