UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Altar Images: US Day of the Dead as Political Communication A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Communication by Regina M. Marchi Dissertation Committee: Professor Michael Schudson, Chair Professor Chandra Mukerji, Co-Chair Professor David Avalos Professor Suzanne Brenner Professor David Gutierrez Professor Daniel Hallin 2005 Copyright Regina M. Marchi, 2005 All rights reserved iii Dedication For my grandparents, Frances and Thomas Cave and Mary Marchi. My favorite “muertos.” iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page………………………………………………………………. iii Dedication……………………………………………………..………...…...…iv Table of Contents………………………………………………………………..v List of Tables………………………………………………..………………..…vi Acknowledgements…………………………………………….……………....vii Vita…………………………………………………………………………….viii Abstract…………………………………………………………....................... xi Chapter 1. Introduction................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2. Historical Overview of Day of the Dead……………………… 42 Chapter 3. Cultural and Political Solidarity……………………………... 116 Chapter 4. Day of the Dead in the News………………………………... 185 Chapter 5. Adoption, Adaptation and Appropriation in the US…………. 247 Chapter 6. Conclusions……………………………………………...…... 326 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Annual number of articles about Day of the Dead events …....................….209 Table 2: Number of political issues discussed in stories 1994-2004………………....229 Table 3: Percentage of political issues in stories 1994-2004………………..……….230 vi Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to the co-chairs of my committee, Michael Schudson and Chandra Mukerji, who read various drafts of this dissertation, provided incisive feedback from a sociological perspective and offered enthusiastic support along the way. I am also fortunate to have had as committee members political scientist Dan Hallin, an expert in news media and Latin American politics; anthropologist Suzanne Brenner, a specialist in the role of cultural rituals in the contemporary world; historian David Gutierrez, an authority on Chicano history, culture and politics, and visual artist David Avalos, a pioneering Chicano activist and intellectual who provided valuable feedback from the perspective of one who lived much of the history I discuss. My dissertation is a finer piece of research because of the expertise available to me from these scholars, however any errors or oversights in the text are solely my own responsibility. I would also like to thank the staff of the Communication Department at UCSD (Gayle Aruta, Jamie Lloyd, Claudia Dametz, Bruce Jones, Bea Velasco, Liz Floyd, Cindy Svacina and the late Lori McFaddin) who never failed to help me over the years with any number of problems ranging from computer melt-downs to broken staplers to bureaucratic paperwork. Their intelligence, humor and support made the entire dissertation process run smoothly. This project would not exist without the many people who allowed me to interview them. While there are too many to list here, I am especially indebted to Tere Romo, René Yañez, Yolanda Garfias Woo, Maribel Simán DeLucca, Claudio DeLucca, Tomás Benitez, Barbara Henry, Nancy Chárraga, Patricia Rodriguez, Carlos Von Son, Terry Alderete, Mary Ann Thiem and David Avalos. I thank my parents, Roberta and Richard Marchi, and my entire family in Boston (especially my brother Chris, sister Rebecca, aunts Debra and Mary, uncle Jacopo and cousin Adrian) who never stopped rooting for me from 3000 miles away. There are also friends who were enormously helpful: Ignacio Ochoa, with whom I’ve had hours of conversations about Latin American religious and cultural practices; Kathleen Collins, Barbara McDonough, Nancy Lee, Matt Stahl, Fatma Mindikoglu, Steve Jackson and Ferruh Yilmaz who, besides offering intellectual and moral support, made my graduate school years fun. I am grateful to Ken Thompson for proofreading the final draft. This project received generous financial support from these sources: The San Diego Fellowship from the University of California, San Diego (1999-2003); a Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Center for Media, Religion and Culture awarded by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder (2003-2004); a Summer Dissertation Fellowship from the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, University of California, San Diego (2004); a Final Year Dissertation Fellowship awarded by the University of California’s Office of the President (2004- 2005); and a Summer Research Fellowship from the California Cultures in Comparative Perspective Program, University of California, San Diego (2005). vii VITA 1987 B.A. Rhetoric and English, Bates College, Lewiston, ME 1990 M.A. English, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 1987-1999 Employed as a teacher, journalist and community organizer 2000 Research Assistant, University of California, San Diego 2001- 2003 Teaching Assistant, University of California, San Diego 2004-2005 Adjunct Faculty, University of California, San Diego 2005 Ph.D. in Communication, University of California, San Diego PUBLICATIONS Marchi, R. “Communities Against Runway Expansion: A case study of the impact of community organizing on news and politics,” Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, November 2005. Marchi, R. “El Dia de los Muertos in the USA: Cultural Ritual as Political Communication,” Spontaneous Shrines and the Public Memorialization of Death, ed. Jack Santino: Palgrave. Forthcoming (Spring 2006). Marchi, R. “Day of the Dead - a U.S. Holiday: Media, Ritual and a Quest for Connection,” Religion, Media and the Marketplace, eds. Stewart Hoover and Lynn Schofield Clark: Rutgers. Forthcoming (Spring 2006) Marchi, R. Spanish to English translation of book, The Festival Day of Saint John of Mixtepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. Nahual Institute. Forthcoming (Winter 2006). FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Cultural Studies and Media Studies Specialization: Culture and communication, social movements and the media; social change, grassroots uses of communication technologies, race and ethnicity in popular culture; Globalization; social theory; communication theory; qualitative methods viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Altar Images: US Day of the Dead as Political Communication by Regina M. Marchi Doctor of Philosophy in Communication University of California, San Diego, 2005 Professor Michael Schudson, Chair Professor Chandra Mukerji, Co-Chair This dissertation encourages a rethinking of what social scientists typically classify as “media” to include public ritual celebrations as an influential form of community-based media that enlarge the public sphere and provide important opportunities for political communication, particularly for populations with limited input and access to conventional media production. Using a mixture of ethnography, historical research, and critical textual analysis, I examine Day of the Dead events in the USA as vernacular media that communicate about identity, politics, and modernity. Within a dominant Anglo culture that has historically treated Latinos with violence and discrimination, Chicano-initiated Day of the Dead celebrations are more about communicating a Latino ix cultural and political presence in the US than about fulfilling moral obligations to the deceased. While many altars and events commemorate deceased friends and relatives, a large number honor popular Latino icons (e.g., artist Frida Kahlo; actor Pedro Infante) or draw attention to sociopolitical causes of death affecting the Latino community (e.g., labor abuses, immigration policies). I examine how ritual and visual culture, in combination with news and popular media coverage of the celebration, transmit messages of identity and political solidarity among Latinos of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds. This research also examines commercialization as a form of communication that has affected the growth of Day of the Dead in The US, and looks at how this celebration has affected mainstream US culture. Day of the Dead is both a “residual” and “emergent” practice, as Latinos revitalize ancestral forms of social solidarity and communication while at the same time transforming them for relevancy in twenty-first century America. One of the most important implications of this dissertation is that meaningful political communication happens during activities and in places not usually recognized as “political.” The examples and analyses offered demonstrate how cultural rituals can serve to inform the public and, in commemorating culture and political struggles for justice, inspire community activism. x Chapter One: Ritual Communication and the Public Sphere 1.1 Introduction: Project Overview This dissertation argues that Day of the Dead exhibits and events in the United States are vernacular media1 that communicate about identity, politics, and modernity. Amidst discussions in the field of communication concerning the production, distribution and consumption of cultural and intellectual information, it encourages a rethinking of traditional assumptions regarding both the formulation of the public sphere and the constitution of political communication. Day of the Dead events in the United States illustrate how a public ritual celebration, a form of communication generally ignored by academic programs preoccupied with journalism, television, film, video, and computer-mediated communication, has created distinctive public spaces