At ULA's Día de los Muertos, Lost Loved Ones Honored In Fair Haven

Silvana Deigan, an artist and activist who has participated in ULA's Día de los Muertos parade for the last four years. In January, her work was featured in El Arte/El sueño/La Realidad de Migrar (The Art/The Dream/The Reality of Migration) at the New Haven Peoples' Center. Elena Unger Photos.

As Fair Haven families and community members gathered in Bregamos Community Theater’s parking lot, Silvana Deigan spread her arms in a showy display; children and adults alike stopped to admire her. In addition to her skeleton bodysuit, she sported magnificent hummingbird wings streaked with deep blue and metallic green. They were speckled with lights that would soon flicker under the night sky as she paraded down Blatchley Avenue.  

Deigan was one of the many attendees of Fair Haven’s 13th annual Día de los Muertos parade, organized by Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA). The parade offered community members the opportunity to honor late loved ones by contributing to a collective altar, or ofrenda, and carrying puppets dedicated to lost friends and family members. This year, the parade was dedicated to ULA volunteer Dean Peckham and ULA worker Daniel Ramirez. 

Festivities began at 4 p.m. last Saturday at Bregamos Community Theater, which for years marked the terminus of the parade when it was still based out of a warehouse on Mill Street. Attendees got their faces painted, changed into costumes, and left photos of late loved ones at an indoor altar. Eager paraders roamed the theater's parking lot, marveling at one another’s elaborate outfits. 

For Deigan, dressing as a hummingbird carried special meaning. On a day when the barrier between the living and dead is lifted, the hummingbird “is a messenger from the gods,” she said. 

Parading through the streets. Elena Unger Photos.

Deigan has been attending the Día de los Muertos parade for four years straight—the sense of community is what keeps her coming back. She loves the collaborative nature of building the giant puppets to honor the dead. This year, she helped design the puppet dedicated to Peckman. She also brought a puppet of her aunt from a previous year.

As the clock struck 6.30 p.m., attendees picked up the puppets Deigan worked on and dozens more in preparation for the parade. They ascended the hill of Bregamos’ driveway and waited for the leading truck—equipped with a massive speaker—to pave the way. 

Streams of people carrying skull-covered staffs, memorial posters, light-up sabers, and massive skeletal puppets flooded the street. Children and their parents sat and stood in the grass beside the sidewalk, watching the paraders strut by. Community members stood in their driveways and peered out the windows to catch a glimpse of the magic. 

“I mean, it's a beautiful celebration of life,” said attendee Charla Nich. 

Part of the celebration’s beauty was the expansive scope of who attendees were honoring. One attendee carried a skeletal puppet with a checkered button-down shirt, khakis, and long grey yarn hair. Another held a puppet adorned with tissue paper peonies and copious amounts of glitter. Some even carried puppets of their pets. 

Some of the giant puppets. Each year, Guatemalan artist Pedro Lopez helps ULA prepare for the parade for weeks. Elena Unger Photos.

For attendee Jenny Lopez, the Día de los Muertos parade was a chance to honor her late dog Hazel, who passed away in October, as well as her close friend Kathy Carroll. 

“Hazel was a Pitbull and we had been together for eleven years,” Lopez said. “I was putting her photo down, I saw that she was next to my friend, Kathy Carroll, who died three years ago.” 

Lopez and Carroll’s daughter made a puppet for Kathy, and Lopez found the process to be both indulgent and cathartic. 

“It just really felt right. It's a really nice way to honor people who have passed,” Lopez said. 

As paraders wove through Fair Haven's streets, their path was lit by the blue and red lights of leading police cars. They danced joyfully as they marched forward, conjuring and celebrating the spirits of the dead. At the end of their nearly hour-long trek, paraders returned to Bregamos Community Theater for a lively afterparty. 

The community ofrenda, or a collective altar that welcomes back the spirits of the dead to the land of the living for a small window of time. Elena Unger Photos. 

The inside of the theater was decorated with papel picado, Mexican decorative flags, and an abundance of skeletons. On the left side of the room was a small stage where live salsa and Cumbia summoned community members to dance. Across from the stage lay a long, rectangular table, labeled “Bodega,” with traditional Mexican dishes, including the holiday classic: pan de muerto. 

Remembrance and delight emanated from the crowd as Fair Haveners of all ages shared good food, good music, and a deep sense of tradition. The Día de los Muertos altar, tucked against the back wall, attracted the occasional gaze of a partygoer. 

“I was actually just looking at the altar and looking at the other people that are being celebrated and I noticed I have a few from previous years. It's just a beautiful way to connect with people that have passed,” said Nich. 

The altar display, and the parade itself, were both a poignant meditation on death and a triumphant celebration of life.