13 Nov Pittsburg Keeps Loved Ones Alive With Day of the Dead Celebration

Framed photos of late husband and wife Jess and Consuelo Segovia and traditional marigolds adorn the altar created in their honor for Pittburg’s Día de los Muertos celebration held Nov. 2.

Story and photos by Emily Tenorio Molina 

Faded photos of Jess Segovia embracing his wife, Consuelo Segovia, are centerpieces of a stunning, lively altar erected in their memory.

The memorial set up by the couple’s first-born, Lisa Segovia, is part of a tradition of remembrance and honoring late loved ones that’s celebrated in Mexican culture. It’s also part of a tradition in Pittsburg, where on Nov. 2, people came together to commemorate Día de los Muertos at the Marina Community Center with live music, food, vendors and altars decorated with photos, flowers, food and trinkets to honor late loved ones.

Lisa Segovia and her family have participated in Pittsburg’s Day of the Dead celebrations for decades, starting when her parents celebrated by making food to put on the altars at home and visiting graves of past generations.

 

She remembers how her mom liked making atole and food that she would set up next to pictures of loved ones that died long ago. 

A ceramic figurine of a skeleton couple sitting on a bench symbolizes the Segovias’ enjoyment of the beaches of Capitola in Santa Cruz and Consuelo Segovia’s love of striking hats. 

The ladybug centered in the figurine symbolizes the ladybugs Segovia started seeing after her mother’s death.

 

Celebrating Day of the Dead hails from pre-Hispanic origins where the Aztecs celebrated death as an integral part of life. As traditions blended with Catholicism and transcended to the United States, the holiday diversified to mainstream culture through films like Disney’s “Coco” and chain stores like Target. 

In Pittsburg, which is historically diverse as 43.2% of residents are Hispanic and 31% of residents were born outside of the United States, the celebration started 30 years ago at the Marina Center sponsored by the Pittsburg Arts and Community Foundation.

Rose Mary Tumbaga, who is half Latino and Filipino, got into celebrating the dead through learning the historical context of the celebration through friends. 

Tumbaga, the director of arts, literacy and education of PACF, enjoys seeing people share the stories of loved ones who were once memorable Pittsburg residents and hopes that the community can continue to memorialize older generations. 

Lisa Segovia notes that in previous years there were more family altars even though a lot of people have died since. She worries that if younger generations don’t continue with the altar setting, the tradition might die off.

“Today, just by sitting here, more people are interested in doing this,” Segovia said, referring to people expressing in setting up altars in their homes.

She also pays tribute to her neighbors and friends who were wonderful people that helped her through all chapters in her life.  

Framed in brightly colorful frames are two lively young women on the right pillar of her altar. 

In a gold plated-frame is Becky Meza-Music, a childhood friend who Segovia saw as family — she even saw Meza-Music daughters as her own since Segovia couldn’t have children. They were part of each other’s lives since meeting in the first grade at St. Peter Martyr School in Pittsburg.

In a hot pink frame is Elizabeth Vazquez, a good friend of Segovia who died from cancer not long after she helped Segovia through the difficult event of her father’s death.

 

“They were a big part of my life,” said Segovia, “and it makes me feel happiness thinking about those times.”

A couple of decorative bulldogs are found in the altar, representing her bulldogs Bronson and Buddah who were cherished by Segovia and spoiled with waffles in life by her mother.

With the altar decorated with her mother’s worn out molcajete and trinkets symbolizing the people who encouraged Segovia through life, the memories are fresh to her and creates joy that keeps them alive.

 

Margaret Vega fawns over the aged photos of the loving Segovia couple, who have been her close friends for over seven decades. 

The 89-year-old grew up with Consuelo Segovia in booming 1950s Pittsburg. She remembers when as spirited young teenagers they would drive with other neighborhood girlfriends to Pittsburg High, a fun luxury that not many teens had in that time. 

“They make for good memories. Those are keeping me alive now,” Vega said.

 

After Vega talked about Jess Segovia’s affinity for the 49ers and remembered the delicious almond mole made by Lisa Segovia’s grandmother, she joined her husband of 63 years at the mariachi performance. 

“We’ll throw a big party in heaven,” Vega smiled.  

With few altars this year than previously, the 64-year-old Segovia and her sister, Leticia, continue the tradition of creating the elaborate altar and adding pictures of the recently deceased to pay tribute.

Segovia wonders if people don’t pass the rites of the celebration onto the next generations, how can the memories of the dead pass on?

 

Longtime resident Kiko Perez believes the Day of the Dead tradition is growing in the town’s community. He notes the great number of residents that stopped by to pay respects to loved ones at the cemetery in Pittsburg. 

Like the Segovias, Perez and his family have participated in the Pittsburg celebration for years as they display black and white pictures of smiling relatives and friends. 

“[The altars] are keeping them alive,” Perez said.

 

In the end, celebrating death is not a scary or weird affliction but rather a token of appreciation to the people who gave us opportunities for a good life.  

As it’s beautifully said in “Coco,” “When there is no one left in the living world who remembers you, you disappear from this world.”