For over 10 years, Lake Worth Beach artist Jose Mendez has dedicated himself to researching and sharing the traditions of Día de los Muertos — at local schools, in his art and with a popular festival that he is bringing back to life this year after its cancellation.
The holiday — Day of the Dead in English — had always been a part of his culture. Born in San Miguel Acatán, Guatemala, he grew up with a connection to his Mayan indigenous heritage, something his family kept alive even after moving to the United States when he was just months old.
“We come [to the U.S.] and everything is so fast, we gotta figure out how to pay our bills, and we forget a lot of things,” said Mendez. “It's important to slow down a little too, that's what the holiday does for me.”
For Mendez and his family, slowing down meant they honored their dead loved ones and ancestors by sharing bread covered in honey, drinking cacao, and eating pumpkin squash and tortillas. It’s a core Día de los Muertos memory, Mendez told WLRN.
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“ Also looking at how your family reflected,” said Mendez. “Remembering those special days, foods, drinks, things that your deceased loved ones liked.”
Despite growing up celebrating the holiday — called Día de Todos los Santos, or All Saints' Day, in Guatemala — Mendez did not embark into his journey of research until he attended downtown Fort Lauderdale’s Día de Los Muertos parade and street festival in 2012, then still run by its founder Jim Hammond.
For Mendez, it was one of the better Day of the Dead festivals in South Florida, a region where big, public celebrations of the holiday are not as easy to come by.
“That basically … threw me into a spiral of research,” said Mendez.
Since then, he has traveled to Los Angeles, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Mexico, Sumpango, Guatemala, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York City, Seattle and various cities in Texas to learn about the holiday’s varied traditions, which differ by country and region.
Mendez has shared his research in classrooms at Palm Beach State College and the School District of Palm Beach County. His findings also inform his art, which he uses to share the holiday’s traditions with others.
“Being that Day of the Dead has very deep indigenous roots, I started … traveling to get to know some of the indigenous communities to bring it here,” Mendez said.
Since 2016, Mendez has helped bring these traditions to life through the Lake Worth Beach Día de los Muertos Festival he co-founded, which has drawn thousands of people in previous years.
This year would have marked a 10-year milestone, but the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency pulled the plug on the event after state grants were significantly reduced, as first reported by the Lake Worth Beach Independent.
“ My thought was that, I helped start this. This is not gonna end,” said Mendez.
So he asked his community of artists for help. Currently an artist in residence with the No More Starving Artists Foundation (NMSA), Mendez asked if he could hold the festival — at a smaller scale and even smaller budget — at The Peach Collective in West Palm Beach, where it has studio space.
Both the NMSA and The Peach were on board.
“Everything that I've learned in the arts industry, I've been able to think deeply on how can we continue this by cutting out the middleman,” said Mendez. “How can we be the ones that are the leaders of this?”
The festival will include outdoor art installations, among them a mural, a giant heart sculpture, a five-foot-tall alebrije — a brightly colored folk-art creature — and a sawdust carpet traditionally associated with religious celebrations in Guatemala. Colorful ofrendas, altars honoring the dead that are unique to Mexico, will also be on display.
The event will also feature an art battle, in which 10 artists will compete for a $500 prize, with their work later included in an exhibition.
The No More Starving Artists Foundation is raising money to help pay for the event, which is scheduled for Nov. 7, as part of its monthly Art Walk.
“ We've raised $250 out of the $4,000 that we need,” said Mendez when WLRN spoke with him in mid-October. “Which is a drop in the bucket, but it's still some drops.”
A celebration amid immigration arrests in Palm Beach County
In 2024, Mendez’s Day of the Dead festival in Lake Worth Beach drew over 6,000 attendees. But as arrests and detainments by Immigration and Customs Enforcement ramped up in Florida, including in Palm Beach County, last year’s event saw a drop in attendance.
Mendez understands the fear that grips his Lake Worth Beach community, a city where half of its residents are Hispanic or Latino. And as the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office continues its agreement with ICE to assist in arrests, he admits it’s also confusing.
“ There was [the Maya Fest] celebration about a month ago … [PBSO deputies] showed up, shaking hands and doing the opposite,” said Mendez. “So it's like, ‘Okay, we see what you're doing in certain parts of the community, actually, in the same community, but you're over here shaking hands, kissing babies' heads for this festival.’"
Mendez said he will be holding this year’s Día de los Muertos Festival with the best intentions, and he is hoping for the best outcome, even in the middle of uncertainty. It’s a trait that he says was handed down to him by his late father.
“ One of the biggest things in Maya culture is to not have fear, and it's also written in Christianity, fear only God,” said Mendez. “My dad definitely said to be fearless, to not have any fear.”
Festival moves forward amidst grief
This Día de los Muertos will be the first Mendez celebrates without his father, who died in September. His father’s death has given him a renewed sense of purpose, despite the setbacks.
“Of me not just being the host of an event,” Mendez said. “It definitely helped me say, ‘Okay, let’s do this.’”
One memory has stayed with Mendez. Back in the 1990s, he would watch his father replay VHS tapes of Mayan documentaries in their living room.
“There was this part where they would say, ‘The Mayas would fly,’ and there’s a hieroglyph of a Maya flying,” Mendez recalled.
That memory is now shaping the ofrenda Mendez is creating in his father’s honor this year, drawing on the ancient world while incorporating touches of the new.
Mendez told WLRN he is determined to bring the festival back to Lake Worth Beach next year, potentially on a larger scale.
“You'd be surprised, there are organizations that do wanna help us, but their hands are tied in a certain way,” said Mendez. “But that's also lying heavy on Amendment 3.”
Mendez added that he will be voting ‘no’ on the ballot measure, which would eliminate non-school property taxes in Florida if it passes on Nov. 3. Mendez believes the decrease in tax revenue would hit funding for arts and culture programs.
But even with the uncertainty, Mendez believes organizers must find creative ways to keep these celebrations going. Like he did, this year.
“I definitely want it to be known that the festival is not going to stop, at least here in Palm Beach County,” said Mendez.
IF YOU GO
What: Día de los Muertos
When: Saturday, Nov. 7
Where: The Peach, 3950 Georgia Ave, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
More information: Here
