SGA and International Education Series: Coco

The Mexican character, shaped by the fusion of Christianity and indigenous religion, is perhaps epitomized in the celebration of the Day of the Dead. This fanciful film takes us to the village of Patzcuaro, where, like villages all over Mexico, on October 31 people return home from everywhere to celebrate their ancestors and communicate with their long dead loved ones. This impressionistic pilgrimage takes us to the cemetery where graves are decorated and turned into works of art, with flowers, personal objects, food, offerings and thousands upon thousands of candles. For a twenty-four hour period,we follow Death on a tongue-in-cheek guided tour through the soul of a people.

Stephen Fry as he embarks on a remarkable road trip through Central America. It's an adventure that takes him through Mexico and the entire central American Isthmus to Panama, taking in some of the oldest civilizations on the planet - Maya, Aztec and Olmec. Seven years after he explored all 50 states of the USA in a black taxi cab, this new trip south of the border sees him travelling in everything from a converted school bus to a hot air balloon, as well as riding trains and a white-knuckle zip wire. As Stephen visits some of the most dangerous, but breathtakingly beautiful countries in the region, he joins in festivities, samples local delicacies and chats to people in a wide variety of settings. Along the way he learns all about the countries, their inhabitants, their wildlife and their history.

All around the world, mankind perpetuates traditions, passing down skills and a way of life to future generations. Whether this involves rituals or mastery of techniques, handing down customs is a way of reinforcing the identity and singularity of a group of individuals in keeping with their lifestyle and their environment. Through the discovery of some exceptional locations, Alexandre Mostras leads us on an encounter with the last guardians of a unique heritage. In a first-person travelogue, he recounts the simple tale of a community and the importance of inter-generational transmission that plays a direct role in the survival of its culture.

The Day of the Dead is the most important annual celebration in Oaxaca, Mexico. Skillfully combining textual information and photographic imagery, this book begins with a discussion of the people of Oaxaca, their way of life, and their way of looking at the world. It then takes the reader through the celebration from the preparations that can begin months in advance through to the private gatherings in homes and finally to the cemetery where the villagers celebrate together - both the living and the dead.

Kristin Norget explores the practice and meanings of death rituals in poor urban neighborhoods on the outskirts of the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork in Oaxaca City, Norget provides vivid descriptions of the Day of the Dead and other popular religious practices. She analyzes how the rites and beliefs associated with death shape and reflect poor Oaxacans'values and social identity. Norget also considers the intimate relationship that is perceived to exist between the living and the dead in Oaxacan popular culture. She argues that popular death rituals, which lie largely outside the sanctioned practices of the Catholic Church, establish and reinforce an ethical view of the world in which the dead remain with the living and in which the poor (as opposed to the privileged classes) do right by one another and their dead. For poor Oaxacans, these rituals affirm a set of social beliefs and practices, based on fairness, egalitarianism, and inclusiveness.