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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2022
This article shows how vulnerable communities use Mexico's Day of the Dead for social justice activism. Activists sustain what I call the ‘political afterlives’ of their victims through street altars and dark humour. I analyse this as a ‘necrosocial repertoire of contention’. The Day of the Dead can play an important role in human rights advocacy by insisting that the marginalised dead be honoured and cared for. However, disappeared people pose a challenge to Mexico's horizontal, or popular, ethics of commemoration and illustrate what I call ‘necrotaboos’, with new problems for the nation's inclusive spirit of commemorating the dead.
Este artículo muestra cómo comunidades vulnerables utilizan el Día de los Muertos en México para el activismo de justicia social. Los activistas sostienen lo que llamo ‘vida política después de la muerte’ de sus víctimas por medio de altares callejeros y humor negro. Yo lo analizo como un ‘repertorio necrosocial de contención’. El Día de los Muertos puede jugar un papel importante en la promoción de los derechos humanos al insistir en que los muertos marginalizados reciban honor y cuidado. Sin embargo, las personas desaparecidas suponen un reto a la ética horizontal, o popular, de la conmemoración e ilustran lo que llamo ‘necrotabús’ con nuevos problemas para el espíritu incluyente nacional de la conmemoración a los muertos.
Este artigo mostra como comunidades vulneráveis usam o Dia dos Mortos no México para fazer ativismo por justiça social. Os ativistas sustentam o que chamo de ‘vida política após a morte’ de suas vítimas por meio de altares de rua e humor negro. Analiso isso como um ‘repertório necrosocial de contenção’. O Dia dos Mortos pode desempenhar um papel importante na defesa dos direitos humanos, insistindo que os mortos marginalizados sejam homenageados e cuidados. No entanto, pessoas desaparecidas representam um desafio à ética horizontal, ou popular, de comemoração do México e ilustram o que chamo de ‘necrotabus’, com novos problemas para o espírito inclusivo de comemoração dos mortos.
1 Interview with Bernabé Abraján, member of the ‘Fathers and Mothers of Ayotzinapa’ collective, Mexico City, 12 Nov. 2014. All translations from Spanish are by the author.
2 Grupo Interdisciplinario de Expertos Independientes (GIEI), Informe Ayotzinapa, Investigación y primeras conclusiones de las desapariciones y homicidios de los normalistas de Ayotzinapa, 2015, https://www.oas.org/es/cidh/actividades/giei/giei-informeayotzinapa1.pdf, pp. 5–156. All websites were last accessed on 31 Jan. 2022.
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13 Pita, ‘La historia de un mural’, p. 53.
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19 Gómez-Barris, Where Memory Dwells, p. 8; Ohlson, ‘Political Afterlives’, p. 676.
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22 Ferrándiz and Robben (eds.), Necropolitics.
23 Mbembe, ‘Necropolitics’, pp. 39–40.
24 Ibid., pp. 25–30.
25 Antonius C. G. M. Robben, ‘Exhumations, Territoriality, and Necropolitics in Chile and Argentina’, in Ferrándiz and Robben (eds.), Necropolitics, pp. 53–75, here pp. 53–5; Mbembe, ‘Necropolitics’; Wright, ‘Necropolitics’; Santos, ‘O morto no lugar dos mortos’.
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27 Rojas-Pérez, Mourning Remains, p. 15.
28 Robben, Political Violence and Trauma; Sanjurjo, ‘Our Dead Can Speak’.
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30 GIEI, Informe Ayotzinapa; Noble, ‘Introduction’; Ohlson, ‘Contesting Mexico's Necropolitics’.
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36 Fragoso, ‘De la “calavera domada”’, p. 5.
37 For a discussion of Posada's political satire see Brandes, ‘Iconography’, pp. 202–5.
38 Brandes, ‘Is There a Mexican View of Death?’; Elsa Malvido, ‘La festividad de Todos Santos, Fieles Difuntos y su altar de muertos en México, patrimonio “intangible” de la humanidad’, Patrimonio Cultural y Turismo, 16 (2006), pp. 42–55.
39 Brandes, Skulls to the Living, pp. 8–15.
40 Lomnitz, Death and the Idea of Mexico.
41 Brandes, Skulls to the Living; ‘Is There a Mexican View of Death?’.
42 Tilly, ‘Contentious Repertoires’, p. 26.
43 Congdon, ‘Making Merry with Death’, p. 200.
44 Ohlson, ‘Political Afterlives’.
45 de Lemos Azevedo, Desirée, ‘Our Dead and Disappeared: Reflections on the Construction of the Notion of Political Disappearance in Brazil’, Vibrant, 15: 3 (2018), pp. 1–24, here p. 5Google Scholar; original emphasis.
46 Congdon, ‘Making Merry with Death’, p. 208.
47 Brandes, ‘Calaveras’; Congdon, ‘Making Merry with Death’.
48 Brandes, ‘Calaveras’; Congdon, ‘Making Merry with Death’.
49 Luis Fernando Buendía Roque, ‘Calaveras de Ayotzinapa’ [Tercer Concurso de Calaveras Literarias], La Jornada (Zacatecas), 2 Feb. 2014.
50 One of the many nicknames for death in Mexico.
51 The number of protestors was contested at the time. See ‘El gobierno sabe dónde están los 43 normalistas’, La Jornada San Luis, 21 Nov. 2014, https://lajornadasanluis.com.mx/nacional/el-gobierno-sabe-donde-estan-los-43-normalistas/, which cites ‘hundreds of thousands’; Jan Martínez Ahrens, ‘Estamos hartos, decimos basta ya’, El País, 21 Nov. 2014, https://elpais.com/internacional/2014/11/21/actualidad/1416529423_601609.html, ‘tens of thousands’.
52 Speech, doña Adriana, ‘Fathers and Mothers of Ayotzinapa’, El Zócalo, Mexico City, 6 Dec. 2014.
53 Antonius C. G. M Robben and Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco (eds.), Culture under Siege: Collective Violence and Trauma (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000); Zur, Judith N., Violent Memories: Mayan War Widows in Guatemala (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998)Google Scholar; Green, Linda, Fear as a Way of Life: Mayan Widows in Rural Guatemala (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999)Google Scholar.
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59 Interview, Araceli, ‘May our Daughters Return Home’, Coyoacán, Mexico City, 2 Nov. 2014.
60 Ibid.
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69 Garciagodoy, Digging the Days of the Dead, p. 201.
70 Interview, Bernabé Abraján, El Zócalo, Mexico City, 23 Dec. 2014.
71 Speech, Patricia Navaz, ‘Fathers and Mothers of Ayotzinapa’, rally outside UNAM, 31 Aug. 2015.
72 Concha Malo, ‘Ayotzinapa’; GIEI, Informe Ayotzinapa; Ohlson, ‘Contesting Mexico's Necropolitics’.
73 Speech, Epifano Álvarez, ‘Fathers and Mothers of Ayotzinapa’, Monument to Juárez, Alameda Park, Mexico City, 21 Oct. 2015.
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77 Commemorative slab, Estela de Luz memorial site, inaugurated by the MPJD on 27 March 2014.
78 Brandes, Skulls to the Living, p. 8.
79 The Día de los Angelitos, also known as the Día de los Santos Inocentes (Day of the Holy Innocents), is celebrated from midnight until dawn on 1 November, the first day of the two-day-long Day of the Dead festivity. The day after sunrise is known as El Día de Todos los Santos (All Saints’ Day); 2 November is called El Día de los Difuntos (the Day of the Deceased) and is devoted to the souls of departed adults.
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82 Ibid., p. 15; see also Kwon, Ghosts of War.
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85 Kwon, After the Massacre, p. 15.
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