"Ofrenda" of the Stars

Each year, during the Day of the Dead season, one of the largest and most elaborate "ofrendas" in Mexico City has been the one at the Dolores Olmedo Museum.  Dolores Olmedo was a wealthy Mexican businesswoman, art collector and friend of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. In 1994 she opened her home, a former 16th century hacienda, as a museum for her art collection.  Olmedo passed away in 2002 at the age of 93, but her museum continued to attract visitors, especially at this time of year, when people would come to see the enormous "ofrenda" which would have a different theme each year.

Since the pandemic, the museum has been closed, and there is no news as to when it will reopen.  The museum has continued the tradition of an "ofrenda", but it has been displayed at different locations.  This year's "ofrenda" is on display in an exhibition gallery of the Natural History Museum in Chapultepec Park.  Last Wednesday, I went to Chapultepec Park to see it.

A photograph of a young Dolores Olmedo hangs over the central portion of the "ofrenda".

This year's theme is the Golden Age of the Mexican cinema.

All of the life-size figures are, of course, skeletons.  Here the movie goers are shown buying popcorn before taking their seats in the theater.  (The skeleton to the right just happens to be Frida Kahlo.)

The "ofrenda" includes tributes to some of Mexico's most famous actors in some of their famous movie roles.  I have never seen any of the movies, but I have heard of many of the movie stars and some of the films.

The 1950 film "El Rey del Barrio" (King of the Neighborhood) starred Germán Valdés who went by the name of Tin Tan.  In many of his roles, the comic actor played a "pachuco", one of the zoot-suited rebels of the era.

The 1949 movie "Salón México" starred Marga López as a dance hall prostitute who struggles to put her younger sister through a private school.  Her role won her an Ariel Award (the Mexican equivalent of the Oscar) for best actress.

"El Vampiro", filmed in 1957, was the first Mexican horror film.

"María Candelaria" was a 1943 movie which starred Dolores del Río and Pedro Armendáriz.  The film portrayed the indigenous people of Mexico with dignity and was the first Latin American movie to win the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival.  Dolores del Río had previously enjoyed a successful career in Hollywood before returning to her native Mexico to be one of the most important performers of the Mexican Golden Age of cinema.

The 1947 comedy "Los Tres García" (The Three Garcías) starred Pedro Infante, one of Mexico's best-known singers and movie stars.  He tragically died at the age of 39 when the plane he was flying crashed.

The 1940 comedy "Ahi Está el Detalle" (There is the Point) is considered one of the best films of Cantinflás, the Mexican Charlie Chaplin.  Cantinflás was known to U.S. audiences for his performance in the Hollywood movie "Around the World in Eighty Days".