Dia De Los Muertos Festival Community Altar

Honoring our ancestors and those who have recently passed is an important tradition in our culture. We remember and honor them by dedicating a special day of the year for them. On November 2nd we go to their cemeteries, light up our altars and decorate them with photos of our passed loved ones, candles, flowers and food. Every year at the Dia De Los Muertos Phoenix Festival, we strive to keep this tradition alive by providing a community altar.

This year we decided to dedicate the altar to someone special, a prominent and long standing leader of Phoenix:  Mr. Pete Garcia. He was a community advocate, and former executive director of the largest Latino organization in the state: Chicanos Por La Causa. He is the founder of The Victoria Foundation, named in honor of his mother. His organization was established to help our communities with affordable housing, grants for education, arts & culture, and faith based activities.

Garcia passed away on May 3rd 2017 at the age of 72. He is dearly missed. We are honored to have been friends with him and we hope our altar dedication will help continue his legacy rooted in community.