Day of the Dead: Lecture by Benjamin Lambert

On the occasion of the Month of the Imaginary, the Maryse Condé library celebrates "Halloween" with the colors of the Día de muertos and invites you to a lecture followed by a small reception!

A true spectacle of light, symbols, and colors, the Mexican Día de muertos is undoubtedly one of the most fantastic ceremonies of tribute to the deceased that exists among peoples. During the first two days of November, on the occasion of All Souls' Day, the Mexican tradition consists of remembering the dead by including them among those who remain, those who live, and thus, breaking the boundary between life and death once a year. Cemeteries bloom and are adorned with countless colors, graves are richly decorated by the families of the deceased, in a spirit of sharing between the living and the departed who call out to them.

While its origin is essentially Christian, the peculiarity of the Mexican Day of the Dead is that it is part of the Catholic tradition while expressing what is the essence of Mexico, its land and its history, in everything that constitutes its wealth: both the second-largest Catholic country in the world in terms of faithful, but also a nation deeply rooted in its Mesoamerican culture, whose heritage of the brilliant civilizations that preceded the arrival of the Spanish has always shaped its plural identity.

Thus, this festivity with its complex symbolism is bound to challenge many cultures in which death has long been chased away, or even denied, from daily life, which explains its extraordinary popular success since the beginning of the 21st century. Indeed, the aesthetics of the Día de muertos continue to fascinate and attract the curious, and thus merge with other popular aesthetics linked to death and the afterlife, the first being the Halloween party of the powerful US neighbor. Listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO since 2008, the Día de muertos is today at the crossroads of worlds, between a symbol of the ancestral past, an intimate festivity of spiritual communion between the dead and the living, as well as a true popular showcase of Mexico.

Benjamin Lambert is a researcher in Hispanic literature who lives in Madrid. He is the author of a thesis on "Hispanic Macabre Dances: Representations of Death, from the Medieval Iberian Peninsula to New Spain." He specializes in the iconography of death, funerary arts (medieval Spain, Mesoamerican world, New Spain), and religious syncretism.

The library is organizing two other events related to the Imaginary and Latin America:

• 10/24, Saturday, at 6:30 PM — Marana Borges, journalist, writer, and researcher, proposes a book club in Spanish that will focus on two short stories by Gabriel García Márquez and Julio Cortázar available for pickup at the library.

• 10/30, Friday, at 6:30 PM — La Quetzal, a Mexican artist, will present an all-ages show featuring La Catrina.