ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Día De Los Muertos is inspired by traditions in Mexico and pays tribute to loved ones who’ve passed away. 

Although the festival has a serious theme, it’s also full of celebration. One community organization uses this time to bring Latino and LGBTQ+ cultures together.

What You Need To Know

  • Día De Los Muertos, is inspired by traditions in Mexico, paying tribute to loved ones who’ve passed away. Although the festival has a serious theme, it’s also full of celebration. One community organization uses this time to bring Latino and LGBTQ+ cultures together

  • Rochester Rainbow Union will display memorial Ofrenda in local LGBTQ+ spaces both during Dia de los Muertos and in November as they celebrate the lives of our loved ones in the LGBTQ+ community

  • Día De Los Muertos, also known as Day of the Dead, is popular among Latino cultures where people can remember their late loved ones and, according to the tradition, reunite with them. Rochester Rainbow Union board president Andrew Moran uses this opportunity to combine culture and community

Sometimes in the quietest of places, the most can be said.

“We mourn that we've lost them, but we're celebrating the impact that they had, the lives that we shared with them, what they did in the world,” Rochester Rainbow Union board president Andrew Moran said.

A tradition of culture and art, and bringing them back to life in sharing their stories.

“We have Susan Kowal, who was previously involved in our organization as the executive director and was really a leader in advancing Rochester's response to the AIDS epidemic,” Moran said. “We have Evelyn Bailey, who is Rochester's LGBTQ historian. And sadly, our community lost a member of the trans community a few weeks ago in a hit and run.”

Día De Los Muertos, also known as Day of the Dead, is popular among Latino cultures where people can remember their late loved ones and, according to the tradition, reunite with them.

“It's a chance to create an altar of sorts where you honor those specifically,” Moran said. “Usually family members. But I'm using this in the concept of found family, honor them, remember them, come and walk amongst us.”

It brings both of Moran's culture and community together.

“That's a chance for me, really, to bring my culture and share it with the community at large,” Moran said. “It's really rewarding and really empowering. It gives me a chance to kind of bring more aspects of culture from the Latino community that aren't necessarily talked about and shared.”

Moran has found this time to share our respect, love and unity for all people we cherish, even if they are gone.

“If a community doesn't have its history, it doesn't exist,” Moran said. “So this is a chance for us to show that we have our history, that we have the people who were part of where we are right now as a movement, and especially in today's world of people wanting to embrace our identity as LGBTQ folks, it's a chance to again stand proud just as we stand proud at a pride march or at a protest. It's a chance to stand proud and say, "We're here, we've been here, and we will always be here.”

Rochester Rainbow Union will display memorial Ofrenda in local LGBTQ+ spaces both during Dia de los Muertos and in November as they celebrate the lives of our loved ones in the LGBTQ+ community.