Community honors loved ones through ofrenda displays at Tucson’s Presidio Museum

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — This weekend, Tucson residents gathered at the Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón Museum to celebrate Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a time to honor and remember loved ones who have passed.

Colorful ofrenda displays, or altars, filled the museum courtyard downtown, each lovingly crafted by local artists, schools, and organizations.

The tradition, now a yearly highlight for the Presidio, offers both a place of remembrance and an opportunity to teach visitors about the deep cultural roots behind the holiday.

Día de los Muertos, observed annually on November 1st and 2nd, is a Mexican tradition that blends Indigenous and Catholic beliefs about life, death, and remembrance. Rather than mourning those who have died, the holiday celebrates their lives through food, music, and ritual, reflecting the belief that death is part of a natural cycle and that the spirits of loved ones return for a brief visit each year.

At the heart of this celebration are ofrendas, altars created to welcome those returning spirits. Decorated with photos, candles, flowers, favorite foods, and personal mementos, each element holds symbolic meaning, meant to guide and comfort the souls of the departed.

“A lot of people think Day of the Dead is more like Mexican Halloween because they see the skulls and decorations,” said Kate Avalos, Director of Interpretive Programming at the museum. “But Day of the Dead is about our ancestors coming back to visit us. Halloween, on the other hand, was about hiding from evil spirits. So they’re actually quite opposite, even though they share similarities.”

Participating groups this year included Hearts That Purr, City High School, Cholla Afterlife, The Sky Island Alliance, and a unique project called Thrift Store Ancestors, by Presidio Museum board member, Homer Thiel. That display, Avalos said, was inspired by found photographs of strangers, researched and reimagined into detailed tributes to give forgotten lives a story and a place on the altar.

Avalos herself created an ofrenda to honor pets, which has grown every year thanks to community participation.

“This one is a public altar, so people are welcome to leave mementos on it,” she said of the ofrenda. “People love leaving mementos to their pets.”

The altars, she added, serve as more than visual art — they’re a way to process grief and reconnect with memories.

“I feel like it’s a healthy way to look at death,” Avalos said. “To think our loved ones can come back for a day, so we just get to celebrate their lives instead of it being full of sorrow.”

The Presidio’s ofrenda displays will remain on view through Sunday, November 9, and are included with museum admission.

For more information, visit the Presidio Museum’s website.