Changing Configurations of Día de Muertos during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This pioneering book offers insights into new configurations of Día de Muertos  (Day of the Dead) [capital D should be in italics] during the COVID-19 pandemic within wider considerations of how the pandemic has shaped ideas about death and dying differently. It explores how commemorative and mourning practices changed in Mexico during the turbulent years of 2020–21 and, through its innovative case studies of Mexican communities in Ireland and the UK, asks how the festival contributed to global conversations about grief, mental health, and gender-based violence. Drawing from original textual and visual analysis, the book engages with a range of Día de Muertos expressions including masks, marches, altar-building, film, dance performance, calavera (skull) poetry production and community and home-based creative gestures, both online and in person. Through this analysis, we investigate how Mexicans and Mexicans abroad engaged with the rich compendium of Día de Muertos symbolic and narrative systems in order to discuss how the pandemic has framed ideas around loss and renewal more widely.

 Jane E. Lavery is Associate Professor in Latin American Studies in the Department of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at the University of Southampton, UK. She has published extensively in contemporary Mexican and Latin American visual, cultural and literary studies with a focus on gender, the Día de Muertos , multimedia production and digital humanities.

 Nuala Finnegan is Professor in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at University College Cork, Ireland.  Director of the Centre for Mexican Studies until 2023, she has published widely in contemporary Mexican literary and visual studies with a particular focus on gender, gender-based violence and cultural production.