A crowd gathers around a dimly seen figure on the pedestrian street that passes the great stone courtyard of the Church of Santo Domingo. Moving through the crowd we see him. He is a striking sight. His face is obscured with a plastic skull mask and a wig of long synthetic gray hair and enormous wings with dried corn husk feathers. He holds a comical staff with a clown-like skull wearing a Traje de Tehuana. Here is an opportunity to take a picture with death.
This may be the perfect image to end this series on Día de Muertos. This image shows the ambiguities at play in a festival that in a few days spans the emotional spectrum from deep grief, facing up to fears of mortality and at last to joy and laughter while taking a souvenir picture with la muerte.
