In Boyle Heights, an altar in a fruit cart becomes a protest against immigration raids

Mexican Americans in Los Angeles have long celebrated their departed loved ones with altars on Día de Los Muertos.

Besides honoring the dead, these large, colorful sculptures — known in Spanish as ofrendas —also are often used as a form of protest art.

Drawing on this practice, organizers with the nonprofit Community Power Collective honored Emma De Paz, a longtime street vendor arrested in a June 19 immigration raid outside a Home Depot in Hollywood, through an altar installation at Mariachi Plaza. De Paz was active in efforts to decriminalize sidewalk vending.

To build it, they sought the help of Ofelia Esparza, a sixth-generation Chicana altar maker, or altarista, and her daughter, artist Rosanna Esparza Ahrens.

The result was striking.

It took shape within a fruit cart embellished with an archway made of white, orange and yellow paper flowers. Floating beneath the archway was a large decorative Monarch butterfly, a symbol of migration. An array of mangos and watermelons were displayed inside the cart’s casing.

A photo of De Paz, smiling and posing with a flower arrangement matching her navy blue dress, stood prominently atop the altar. 

Esparza Ahrens said the idea to use a fruit cart came from a street vendor. 

“She said it out loud, and I was like, ‘That’s exactly where I was wanting to go,” Esparza Ahrens said.

The mother and daughter duo displayed their creation last Tuesday in Mariachi Plaza, where hundreds of people gathered for a “Reclaim Our Streets” demonstration that featured a procession of mariachis and Aztec dancers in honor of those who have been taken during recent immigration raids. 

At least 30 people, including De Paz, were detained at the Hollywood Home Depot raid on June 19, according to news reports. De Paz remains in detention at the Adelanto Detention Center, a Community Power Collective organizer said.

“We needed to reclaim our streets and do something culturally to honor all types of people, not just the dead,” said Lyzzeth Mendoza, a senior street vendor organizer with Community Power Collective. 

Mendoza said a community vendor offered her cart because she’s not working, vending as much due to the raids. Cutouts of colorful houses, fruits, candles, and food trucks – artwork by Esparza – also decorated the altar. Demonstrators carried those cutouts during the procession.

With limited time, a group of women from Boyle Heights and East L.A., working at home, helped Esparza and Esparza Ahrens make the paper flowers.

The mother and daughter made and dropped off paper packets for the women and then picked up the flowers when they were ready. 

Esparza Ahrens said the women were staying put at home out of fear of the raids.

“Every time we make flowers, there’s some essence of us that goes into it, but also the stories of the people that we’re honoring,” Esparza Ahrens said. “I don’t know [Emma De Paz]. I’ve never met her, but she’s been in my heart.”

“I hope I get to meet her,” she added.

 The altar, which has since been dismantled, “held space” for other vendors who couldn’t attend the event for safety reasons, Mendoza said.

“In the midst of so much chaos, we were able to create a space of wellness,” Mendoza said.

Esparza said she was grateful to see a range of people at the procession. Many stopped by to take photos of the altar and reflected on its symbolic presence.

“Because the more people outside of the community participate, the more impactful it is because it’s not just the Mexicans or the Latinos who are being taken,” Esparza said.