Día de los Muertos was often ignored in Denver. That changed in 1983

The Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, is a holiday with roots in pre-Columbian Mexico, celebrated to honor and remember deceased loved ones.

Walk around Denver today, and you’ll see elements of the celebration everywhere: candy skulls in storefronts, ofrendas in libraries, and calaveras painted on café windows. But that was not always the case. Not too long ago, the holiday was in the fringes, relegated to small, private altars inside the homes of the Hispanic and Indigenous communities of the area.

That began to change in the 1980s. For Chicanos — a cultural identity shared by many people of Mexican descent in the U.S. — Día de los Muertos became more than just a way to remember the dead. It became a way to reclaim identity. A bridge back to culture, ancestry, and community. “I th