Mexico City’s Xochimilco district has a beating heart and life-giving veins: Lake Xochimilco, and the 93 miles worth of canals that weave through it. This isn’t just a visual metaphor: rafts once traveled the channels to supply vital produce to the city. Today, the district’s people still live and work on a lattice of chinampas, or floating islands. Now a UNESCO Heritage Site, Xochimilco—which translates roughly to “where the flowers grow”—is still an important location for growing flowers and vegetables, with the fresh results sold in nearby markets.
Photographer Mallika Vora, who shot the district’s Día de los Muertos celebrations for Vogue, says that although Xochimilco is technically part of Mexico City, it feels like a town that’s slightly separate to the hustle and bustle. With its singular composition, Xochimilco’s approach to the holiday is also informed by its own particular structure and traditions—including a fierce appreciation for every occasion, whether big or small. “No matter what time of year it is, someone is always celebrating something,” says Vora. “A boatman once told me, ‘Siempre hay una fiesta en Xochimilco’—‘There’s always a party in Xochimilco.’”
As is the case elsewhere in the country, on Día de los Muertos, the festival’s traditional marigolds are rife in Xochimilco, whether placed in vases, bright and whole, in family homes, or the ubiquitous petals strewn in paths leading to ofrendas, or altars, guiding the spirits of the dead towards their loved ones. But not far away, you can also see the gardens where the vibrant flowers grow; or in carts and giant pyramids, ready for distribution to the locals; or as precious cargo on the trajineras, or flat-bottomed boats, that make their way down the canals laden with the floral bounty.
Thanks to their highly decorative elements—sugar skulls, flowers, and elaborate makeup honoring the dead and the afterlife—Mexico’s beautiful and lively Día de los Muertos fêtes are well documented, but Vora wanted to capture how Xochilmilco’s people carried out the festivities. “The celebration is very special and reflective of Xochimilco as a place that is both a part of Mexico City as well as a self-contained culture and community,” she says. “I wanted to capture how it felt to be on the streets during Día de los Muertos: the magic, the mystery, the levity of children, the solemnity of remembering those who are gone, the pride in Mexican culture—because it is so many complex feelings and sensations simultaneously, and not just one.”
