Huehca Omeyocan, Aztec Dancers

Día de los Muertos is the Day of the Dead, celebrated across Mexico, and in other areas in the world, often by people of Mexican heritage. Since Pedro’s kids are of Mexican heritage, we like to expose them to Mexican culture when we can. Luckily, Mexican cultural events are easy to find in Oregon.

We live in Tigard, Oregon, and nearby is another Portland suburb called Tualatin. We went to the Tualatin library on October 25, in anticipation of the actual holiday of Día de los Muertos, which is November 1 and 2. The library had invited a group called Huehca Omeyocan. They showed us Aztec dance and drumming, and had set up a Día de los Muertos altar and invited us to examine it.

The setting was humble, but so were the performers. They explained how important it was to them to spread cultural awareness and share the joy and beauty of their heritage. They thanked us for coming. I was very glad we had made it to see them.

After the show, we were encouraged to go out into the hallway and view the display case of items honoring indigenous peoples and cultures from Mexico. The display items are from Eduardo Cruz, an Oregonian artist who is also the dad to the tiny Aztec.

It was the third indigenous Mexican event we had attended this year. The first I blogged about: a sopping wet Cinco de Mayo. The other was not under the best circumstances, when we tried to watch the dancers of La Guelaguetza, in the city of Hillsboro. The celebration centers on traditional dancing in costume in groups. It was a blistering hot day with shade over the dancers – thankfully – but nowhere else. We were sweltering, and had not brought chairs with us, so there was nothing to do but stand in the heat and watch the dancers at a distance. We didn’t last long, but stayed long enough to buy some of our favourite Mexican treats like Mango slices in chili powder, and drinks like horchata.

The kids’ mom also tries to do what she can to share Mexican culture with the kids. I am happy to benefit from being present for these events, because indigenous awareness is so important to me. It is also important to Pedro, and he mentioned it in one of our very first online communications back in 2020, before we had met, before we had even exchanged email addresses, when we only knew each other as a profile on a dating website.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I am trying to catch up on my old news so that I can start the new year off fresh and up to date!