I'm... Mexican but... no. Just no.

It is the Mexican Halloween. It's totally fake! The imagery is mostly from the eighteenth century. The entire northern half of Mexico didn't even acknowledge these vague pseudo “traditions” until my grandparents time.

The core “tradition” was spread by the department of education in the 60s to all schools in Mexico as a way to start unifying the country under one particular indigenous origin-story (also see: eagle eating a serpent on the flag, a purely Mexica story that is sold to all of us as “our” origin myth. Pffft, yeah no.)

The Mexicas were just one of hundreds of tribes. Their myths do not represent the rest of Mesoamerica; but the Mexicas make useful “ancestors” for the made-up ethnicity of a mestizo.

For the past forty years this parochial southern tradition has been forced on the rest of us in the name of “national unity.” Cohesive social narratives like these are not an excuse to completely replace the traditions of literally every other group in the country.

Fuck Day of the Dead.