By Kaitlin Candelaria
Birmingham resident Franklin Biggs became a key player in Dia de Los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead festival, while dealing with his own family death.
The holiday, which traditionally is celebrated on Nov. 2 in the Mexican culture, focuses on honoring and remembering family and friends who have passed away. People do this by gathering their families, cooking traditional dishes and creating altars to pay tribute to loved ones who have died.
Biggs, previous owner of the popular Homewood restaurant Homewood Gourmet, was dealing with the death of his father when he learned that a Dia de Los Muertos festival was getting off the ground in Birmingham. He was instantly attracted to the idea as a way to mourn his father.
“Without knowing anything about Day of the Dead, I did a traveling altar for (my father) because we had three memorial services for him and scattered his ashes in four different places,” Biggs said. “I had five trifold boards with different aspects of his life on them. When they started (the festival), I knew I wanted a piece of the wall in the gallery, so I put up all of the stuff.”
Simple Beginnings
Birmingham-based artist Tracy Davis began the festival after the death of her father, Spider Martin, a renowned civil rights-era photographer. Martin’s love for the holiday inspired Davis’ tribute to him in the Bare Hands Inc. gallery in downtown Birmingham in 2003. When Bare Hands, a nonprofit art organization, got wind of the tribute, it sparked what is now a 13-year-old annual festival in the area.
“They called Guillermo Castro of Sol y Luna and Cantina and asked if he would bring some tamales and they called me and asked if I could bring some rice and make it vegetarian and both of us were people who say, ‘Sure, of course!’ and that’s how it started,” Biggs said. “Every year, it’s gotten bigger and bigger.”
Although Biggs is not of Hispanic or Latino descent, he learned an appreciation of the cultures and language after living in Mexico as a child and later, in Spain.
“The first altar I did was a very cathartic experience,” he said. “There is definitely a personal emotional aspect to it.”
Honoring Loved Ones
Although grieving his father’s death is the original thing that brought Biggs to the festival, the altar he created this year is for his mother, who passed away three years ago. It is part of an installation put in this year at The Abbey in Avondale ahead of the festival. When Biggs was originally asked to create an altar for her, he declined.
“Having just moved, I didn’t even know where the stuff was,” he said. “We were doing the opening of the display at The Abbey on Tuesday. On Sunday before, all of that stuff found me in my house. There was this one bin that I hadn’t opened since we moved and I just had a calling to open it and when I did, there was everything. I said OK fine, I can read the signs. I am meant to pull this out and put it up. So I did.”
Biggs says one of the traditional aspects of the festival is creating an altar with items that are indicative of things the person liked. For example, he decorated his mother’s altar with homages to her favorite sports teams, a picture of him and his siblings, birds and the Grand Canyon. Biggs also lost his sister last year, but says he isn’t quite ready to create an altar for her yet.
Another devastating loss for Biggs was the loss of Castro five years ago. Biggs was in the midst of his second battle with throat cancer and had just sold his restaurant when Castro passed away unexpectedly.
“If you would have asked either of us a year before if either one of us would have been dead, we both would have said me,” Biggs said.
“My favorite part is seeing how different people come up with different ways to express it,” Biggs said. “One woman brings a table and she straps a mailbox to it so you can write a letter to your departed loved one and then at the end, she very solemnly burns them to send them on their way. The year we celebrated Guillermo was very, very moving for me.”
Although the celebration is a way to honor dead loved ones, Biggs still calls it a good time.
“It’s meaningful,” he said. “It’s gotten much bigger. We try to keep it on a human scale and keep it respectful. It’s not a street party. We have a lot of fun we’re trying to respect the meaning of it while bringing a lightness to it.”
Biggs finds that it’s an important thing for Birmingham to have, not only to teach residents about other cultures but also to help those of Hispanic descent who call Birmingham home celebrate their customs.
“I have found Birmingham to be a very welcoming open city where it is easy to effect change,” Biggs said. “When I say effect change, I mean that you can do something and make a difference, which in a lot of places is hard to do for a lot of different reasons. “
When Biggs isn’t preparing food for the festival volunteers, he works as a culinary instructor at Sur La Table or in the community kitchen at the East Lake United Methodist Church.
For more information on Birmingham’s Day of the Dead festival, visit www.barehandsinc.org.
