A journey home to welcome the arrival of the dead
SANTIAGO MATATLAN, Mexico — On the eve of the Day of the Dead, Maria Santiago stood in the back of a moving pickup truck with her hair whipping through the air, heading toward the agave fields that her father had owned in this small town outside Oaxaca City.
She meandered through the plantation with her mother and brother-in-law, avoiding the prickly plants, to collect small yellow flowers for their altar.
Santiago, a 25-year-old nursing assistant in Los Angeles, had flown to her hometown to celebrate her first Day of the Dead without her father, a construction worker who died last January from COVID-19. In Santiago Matatlan, where residents will keep their doors and windows open to invite the spirits of their ancestors, Santiago's grandmother had taught her it was especially important to honor the recently deceased.
"If my dad comes, I want to
