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SAN JUAN — Each year on Nov. 2, Virginia Perez and her family visit her grandparents’ grave to celebrate their departed loved ones in honor of Día de los Muertos, a holiday observed on the first two days of November.
Perez like many others who celebrate the holiday place their loved ones favorite snacks, drinks and other treats by their graves.
It is those customs that Perez hoped to emphasize at the city of San Juan’s Día de los Muertos event Saturday, where they created alfombras de aserrín, or sawdust carpets.
Sawdust dyed in various colors including blue, yellow, pink, green, orange and other festive colors were used to create iconography representing the holiday.
Perez and her 6-year-old daughter, Samantha Perez, attended the event as part of a McAllen Girl Scout troop and began their project around 9:30 a.m.
The pair helped the troop create a sawdust carpet depicting an image of a candle surrounded by blue sawdust to represent water.
Perez explained that every year on Día de los Muertos, she places a candle which is believed to help light the path for departed loved ones to find their way to their relatives, as well as a bowl of water on her grandparents’ grave.
For this reason she recommended one of the images on a carpet be a candle.
She smiled as she knelt down helping Samantha hold down a flower stencil as she created space to add color to the petals.
“It’s something beautiful to be able to show everyone, it’s not something sad … as long as we celebrate them they still live with us,” Perez said with a smile.
She smiled as she spoke of her grandparents and the traditions she hopes to pass down to her daughters.
“My lalo and my güela, they were my everything,” Perez said, adding that each year on Día de los Muertos she brings them their cup of coffee and favorite pan dulce.
For Perez, the holiday is one she holds close to her heart that she hopes to pass down to her daughters.
“I want to keep the tradition, I want them to also go to the cemetery when we pass away, I want them to continue taking us our favorite food, our favorite snacks, my coffee,” Perez said with a giggle.
Meanwhile, Samantha still toiled over the alfromba, trying to make it just right. But she took time to remark about what her favorite part of the process is, and smiled as she began to explain.
“Putting the colors in here,” Samantha said as she pointed at the edge of the alfombra where she was helping create a flower.
“I think pink, because my favorite color is pink.” She said, deciding on what color to use.
Other groups attended the event each working on different alfombras, with one depicting an image of a monarch butterfly, another with a cat and dog in the center, one with the American flag and one with the Virgin Mary.
Buckets filled with different colored sawdust were scattered around the alfombras. People crouched down as they packed sawdust onto the stencils creating each image.
Some had dye on their shoes and hands due to the sawdust being sprayed with water to keep it from being blown away.
Samantha laughed as she showed off her Converse smeared with blue dye.
Among the volunteers was Veronica Chavez, 52, who attended the event with her son Saul Chavez, 24, as part of the Capable Kids Foundation group.
The Alamo native explained that although she and her son never celebrate Día de los Muertos, ever since Disney Pixar’s film “Coco” released in 2017, Saul has loved the holiday and often gets excited at the mere mention of the celebrations.
“I think in his mind he imagines that they come, the members of our family who have died who we’ve told him that they’re with God, he believes they are going to visit so he gets excited,” Chavez said with a smile.
Saul knelt down near the alfombra focusing on making each image beautiful.
Isauro Garza, who recently moved from Hebbronville to San Juan, looked around at the San Juan City Hall grounds in amazement.
His eyes gleamed with appreciation as he looked at the alfombras adorning the street, the altars standing by City Hall decorated with papel picado and cempasúchil flowers or marigolds.
“I’m amused, every day they have something going on,” Garza said as he looked around at the colorful iconography.
