The life of the marigold, known as the cempasúchil in Mexico, reflects our own: the plant sprouts, grows, flowers and dies. The flowers’ yellow and orange glow is ubiquitous across Mexico every year in the first few days of November, during Day of the Dead, as families place cempasúchil flowers on altars and at cemeteries to create a path to guide their loved ones back home.

My grandmother died of Covid in October 2020, just as the cempasúchil began to appear in the markets of Mexico City. Her death was sudden, and it was a painful experience for my family. Because of the restrictions on gatherings during Covid in Mexico, a funeral was not held after her death.

A few days later, my cousin Gabriel, who lived with my grandmother, went to buy the materials for her first altar. When I saw the image of the altar through family text messages, I was struck by the beauty of his gift to her memory. He created it alone in their shared apartment; this was the only ceremony he could assemble to celebrate her life.

Around her portrait beamed the sunlike glow of the cempasúchil. Absorbed by its radiance, I wondered what other hands had passed over the flowers resting on her altar. Had they faced a similar loss? Did they have the chance to celebrate their loved ones?

These questions led me to retrace the path that those flowers traveled: from the fields where they were harvested to the markets where they were sold and then to my grandmother’s altar. Along the way, I met people who had lost their loved ones to Covid and gained a deeper understanding of the unique grief we experienced during the pandemic. In the short documentary above, “más y más y más flores,” I observe how the cempasúchil not only connects us to those in the realm beyond, but to one another in the world of the living.

After the Day of the Dead has passed, when the flowers wither and fall, seeds appear and scatter. From its own death, the cempasúchil’s next cycle of life begins.

– Film and text by César Martínez Barba (https://www.cesarmartinezbarba.com/).

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