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Article: The crack between the worlds: the Mexican way of death.(Cover Story)
- Article from:
- Commonweal
- Article date:
- October 20, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Commonweal Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Newly arrived in Guanajuato many years ago, I was fascinated by the colorful displays of sugar skulls and skeletons that suddenly appeared on the streets just before Halloween. HOW quaint! How Mexican, I thought. This was the real thing, at last!
But I was puzzled and hurt when a particularly warm, bright, new acquaintance I had felt was becoming a real friend arrived at my house one afternoon and presented me with a purple tissue-wrapped bundle, which proved to contain a fine hard-sugar (alfenique) skull, the size of a large grapefruit and giddy with rococo squiggles, flourishes, and flowers. Sinister glowing red tinfoil eyes glared from its hollow eye sockets, and ...