Entering the cemetery, we first viewed the tribute to Maria Felix and Anthony Quinn:
The designers of the altar also included a couple of other folks in the video that was being shown at the top of the vaguely pyramidal structure... but I can't recall who they were. There was a picture of Zapata on the altar in recognition of Quinn's role as Zapata's brother in Viva Zapata. You might recall that Marlon Brando played Zapata.
Anyway... we continued our trek down memory lane, my eyes adjusting very slowly to the general darkness (thousands of unlit tiki torches flanking the path) and I strained my eyes a great deal trying to figure out what was going on.
There was a stage, and at one point a local Mexican radio personality, El Cucuy de la Manana was up on the stage pretending to be directing a game of Loteria, and cracking jokes that nobody laughed at. One of the cards has a picture of a black boy wearing a striped suit, wearing a straw boater, and carrying a bamboo cane; El Cucuy made some sort of a reference to Michael Jackson. That should give you some idea of what that was like... in any case, nobody paid him the least attention.
The high point of the tour was the monument to Butterfly McQueen, attended by the ghost of Escarlata Pelo.
Escarlata fielded hecklers like an old hand, and really put a spell on a poor old geezer who seemed to have designs on her good name. After a few murmurs of Mi Corazon, and Mi Macho, the macho borracho wandered off very confused indeed.
Update, October 26, 2003
Well, that was last year, an' this is this year.
This year we decided to combine Dia de los Muertos at Hollywood Forever with my birthday!
We told people to meet at the "reflecting pool", little suspecting that this years turnout would be huge and that the area around the reflecting pool was reserved for VIP's, none of whom showed up.
So we camped out at the base of a big tree and bought cerveza, tamales, and platanos fritos.
High points this year included El Diablo and The Angel... Spectators willing to hazard a dance with either one were rewarded with a cerveza, a pull on a bottle of brandy, or a slice of cake.
An old gal popped up who the angel adressed as "Mi Abuelita!", and after a dance with the angel, she took a turn with the devil, who rewarded her with the brandy bottle, which she proceeded to make off with. The Devil caught her and got the bottle back, returning with a cerveza and an unkind word referring to a part of his anatomy that she could have a go at.
Then Anna and Michel came by claiming to have seen Tammy Faye. Well, this seemed highly dubious, but I was not going to take a chance and miss her if it was fore real, so off we went.
Damned if there wasn't Eric Estrada serenading Tammy Faye Bakker!! And then the two of them danced with the Aztec dancers for the TV cameras. What a world is Hollywood.
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