"Art And Souls" Exhibit At California Museum Celebrates Day Of The Dead

If you're into "Day of the Dead," which is traditionally celebrated in Mexico from Halloween through All Saints Day, there's an art exhibit in downtown Sacramento you may want to check out. It's at the California Museum and it features altars and other original works.

Luis Campos-Garcia is one of the artists. He says the holiday is about both celebrating life and honoring the deceased.

"Whatever work they did when they were alive, we celebrate that," Campos-Garcia says. "In Mexican culture we say 'we don't die, as long as somebody that is alive remembers us.'"

Amanda Meeker is with the museum. She says the annual exhibit features altars honoring the achievements of Latinos in civil rights, the arts and science. That includes botanist Ynes Mexía, who discovered two new plant species.

Campos-Garcia's chose to honor Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez, the plaintiffs in a 1947 case called "Mendez versus Westminster" that set a legal precedent for ending school segregation.

"I chose to honor them because they inspire me," he says.

Another altar is about Josefina Fierro de Bright, who was an activist in California. "She also was an immigrant from Mexico," Meeker says. "And she organized some of the first Latina congresses here in California."

The California Museum exhibit is titled "Art and Souls: Day of the Dead 2017" / "Arte y Almas: Día De Los Muertos 2017" It runs through Dec. 30.

You can hear more from about the exhibition in this segment on Insight.