Largest Day of the Dead contest in CA

San Pedro Día de Los Muertos Festival to Host Largest Catrina Contest with Royal Caribbean Cruise for 10 as Grand Prize

Hey, Everybody, look at me! I'm a white doll!

National Latino Heritage Month continues, and Ashley has a question: Is it "cultural appropriation" to dress up for Dia de los Muertos? We think not, but in these sensitive times; anyone can get offended by anything.

Ashley's Oktoberfest cultural appropriation ;)

It seems a male can become a female just for saying so, but NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal gets her backside handed to her on a platter for convincingly changing races or going biracial, even though she is an ally, has Black kids, a Black husband, and good intentions. When she decides to become a man, we're sure she'll be welcomed, celebrated, and encouraged to do drag. Let's look in and see how Ashley's doing on her journey of cultural exploration. Hooray!

• Tips for celebrating Day of the Dead as a foreigner in Mexico
• How to dress for Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) for both sexes
• Next to Mexico: Belize to Tikal Day Trip: 17 Important Tips for Guatemala Day Tours (mywanderlustylife.com)

A Frat Boy's Freedom to Offend (Prager U at UCLA and on Olvera St.)

We're living in Los Angeles (LA, "Latin America"), or the Rust Belt City of Chicago (Chi Town), so it's time to get with it. El Dia de Los Muertos or The Day of the Dead is an important adjunct to our European Halloween and Samhain (because Obon has already past). It's autumn, the fall season, and with the change of weather and amount of daylight, so goes the mood of the city. It's time to get cozy inside with lots of light because outside, The Dead are coming. These are our ancestors, and appeasing them is a nice thing, wholesome karma.

• Buddhists can "transfer merit" to them in temple celebrations in both traditions, the older or back-to-basics Theravada and the populist later-development Mahayana or Hinduism-light.
• The Dead are not altogether gone, just phase-shifted out of easy reach, but contact is still possible due to the strangeness of the universe and separation of dimensions and 31 Planes. Beings go on to be reborn when they pass from here. Where do they go? That utterly depends on their karma (store of deeds, not just from this life but from countless past lives), and we can contribute to their karma by helping them.
• It's like offering medicine to the sick: Some would get better with or without it, some will pass even if they get it, and there is a third group who will only survive if they get it. Is it good to give it?
• In all three cases, it's good to offer it. Let them decide what they need, which they will invariably do by their response (which is their karma).
• Here the "medicine" is not a dangerous allopathic toxic created by sorcerers (Big Pharma) with lots of side effects. It's not even natural plant-based medicine, which can be strong. This medicine is karma (intentional action).
• If sad at the airport and one is offered a flower (by say a hairy Krishna devotee), what can one do? Slap it away in annoyance, accept it and acknowledge the offer in gratitude while politely declining, accept it and eat it then spit it back out and hand it back when charged a "donation" (by their crafty employment of the sociopsychological basis of power known as reciprocation), take it and pay up, take it and tell them to naff off for demanding money... There are so many ways we might respond.
• We are like the sick patient being offered something. How we respond (our intentionally chosen response) or react (our practiced and habitually reaction) is our karma.
• But if it is offered in kindness with nothing expected in return, it can be quite a balm, a salve, a medicinal. It might be calendula, in which case not only is it bright and yellow, it is also medicinal when prepared as a tincture.

It's not just Hollywood Forever. It's all of LA

So this is LA, the Day of the Dead is coming, and here's a chance to participate. The contest has many prizes. Be a Catrina, a painted doll, for the celebration.

We were surprised to learn that Catrinas are not Goth ghosts, not "The Dead," haints, ghouls, spirits. They were originally Indigenous mockeries of Hispanics who dressed up and tried to pass for pure Spanish. "Oh, look at me; I'm so elegant and fashionable with my white powder face!" We were all mixed, Mestizos and Mixtecs.

Hollywood Forever | Cultural Events | Films

The Indigenous dressed up in elegant Euro garb to mock the half-white beauty queens and princes trying to pass as white to emphasize their mixed blood affiliation (the result of rape, coercion, and mostly enticement) with the Conquistadors and settler colonialists who had ruined the New World by their genocide, occupation, and hegemonic influence.

But what's one to do? The Europeans introduced a complex form of racism and colorism that is still rocking Latin America. Spain went so far as to define 16 groups or "castes" (casta) one would be labelled in a classification system as from the Mulatto to the Negro, from the Indio to the pure Gringo or Spanish (100% purebred Iberian Peninsula European).

What "caste" or casta are you? It determines your future?

CONTEST

Get paid for having fun with cosplay?

"The Catrina Contest is open to all genders between the ages of 18-99 with contestants judged on creativity, design, beauty, authenticity. crowd response. We are elevating our celebration with a contest that invites everyone to bring this iconic figure to life with creativity and flair, all while keeping the spirit of family and remembrance at its core.”

— Executive Director of Discover San Pedro Ryan Blaney

• ART: La Calavera Catrina ("The Skeleton Catrina")

LOS ANGELES, California, USA, Sept. 18, 2024 (einpresswire.com) - Discover San Pedro is proud to announce the largest Catrina Contest in California as part of its annual Día de Los Muertos Festival. This year, the contest will offer a grand prize sponsored by the LA Cruise Alliance, which includes Royal Caribbean Group, Carnival Corporation, and MSC Cruises. The winner will receive an unforgettable cruise for 10 aboard Royal Caribbean International. San Pedro Día de Los Muertos Festival (wane.com) (San Pedro is Spanish for "Saint Peter," a coastal city and massive shipping port in LA). More

• Wane.com, 9/18/24; Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

REGISTER HERE FOR THE CATRINA CONTEST

PRIZES:
1. Cruise for 10 people aboard Royal Caribbean Cruises
2. Feast for 10 people at the World Famous San Pedro Fish Market
3. Round Trip for 4 people on Catalina Express
4. Downtown San Pedro Red Trolley for 3 hours up to 30 people