Books We Love Insider Blog: #catrina

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Mexican Celebrations

The Day of the Dead displays were still on the Malecon when my husband Will and I arrived in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on November 15th. Plaster and papier mâché skulls, altars, and Catrinas lined the ocean boardwalk, remnants of Nov 2nd's Dia de los Muertos - the day many Mexicans honour their deceased relatives and friends with celebrations, parades, and visits to gravesites. The Malecon's most impressive display was the elegantly dressed skeleton lady standing 74 feet 4.9 inches tall. Last year the Guiness Book of Records declared her the tallest Catrina in the World. In 2023 she returned in a new outfit that shimmered in the breezes. At night a loudspeaker piped her voice to the Malecon crowd, "I am the most beautiful woman in Puerto Vallarta."

(above) On the Malecon: Giant Catrina & Altar and skull for Canada (below) Giant Catrina viewed from The Cross lookout

Monday November 20th was Revolution Day, a national holiday in Mexico. Will and I got curbside seats for the parade, which features school groups dressed in traditional costumes, often in the colours of the Mexican flag - green, white, and red. The parade moves in a stop and start style as the groups stop to perform dances and acrobatics for the crowd. We really enjoyed the first few acts, but then ten, fifteen, twenty minutes passed. The children gathered in shady spots to wait. By then Will and I were getting hot and retreated to our hotel pool.

Mexico doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, but restaurants offer US Thanksgiving dinners for tourists. Will and I treated ourselves to a buffet Thanksgiving meal at a beachfront hotel.

Before dinner, we worked up an appetite with a Malecon walk and discovered that our Giant Lady had been dismantled. Her head and bones awaited pickup the following day.

Before we left downtown Puerto Vallarta for our relaxing beach week, stores and hotels were setting up displays for Christmas, another festive time of year in Mexico.

Susan Calder

I am the author of six novels published by BWL Publishing Inc. Four are part of my Paula Savard Mystery Series set in Calgary, AB, Canada. The fifth, a standalone suspense novel, shifts between Calgary and California. My latest release, A Killer Whisky, is a historical mystery novel set in 1918 Calgary. My short stories and poems have won contests and appeared in magazines and anthologies. I have also published non-fiction articles and am a member of the Alexandra Writers Centre Society, Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, and the Writers Guild of Alberta. A native of Montreal, I now live in Calgary, where I love biking and hiking in our nearby Rocky Mountains.