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WILL SEBERGER/Arizona Daily Wildcat
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About 4,000 people turned out on Saturday night for the 14th annual All Souls' Procession through downtown Tucson.
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By Aaron Mackey
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Monday November 3, 2003
Bouncing to drum beats while holding countless effigies of the dead, thousands of All Souls' Procession participants shrieked and cheered as they swayed down North Fourth Avenue Saturday evening.
Under the half-lit moon, onlookers cheered as an estimated 4,000 skeletons and ghouls remembered deceased loved ones and celebrities.
The All Souls' Procession was held as part of D’a de Los Muertos, Day of the Dead, a holiday that has its origins in ancient Central American cultures and Catholicism.
Joe Corcoran, a biochemistry junior, who participated in the procession for the first time, said he was impressed by the large turnout.
"I thought it was awesome," he said.
Despite several interruptions by the Tucson Police Department to allow cars to pass through downtown intersections, participants remained upbeat, often breaking into impromptu jam sessions featuring dancing, drums and saxophones.
At one point, participants made the Fourth Avenue tunnel shake as their chants and screams bounced through the structure on their way downtown.
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Musical theater senior Celeste Gauna said she attended the procession for the first time to observe and absorb the event.
Gauna was not marching to remember any person in particular, but said she had always wanted to experience the event.
"Halloween was all about fun. Tonight, this is what real Halloween is about," she said.
The procession began at the Muse on 516 N. Fifth Ave. and ended at a stage in a lot on West Franklin Street and North Stone Avenue.
Flam Chen, a Tucson-based pyrotechnic theater group, and Tucson Puppetworks performed on stage to conclude the evening.
Other events on Saturday morning included an eight-mile pilgrimage from St. John's Catholic Church, 602 N. Ajo Way, to the San Xavier Mission put on by the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos/Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras.
Mexican American studies and political science senior Inez Duarte said the walk was to remember the more than 200 individuals who have died while attempting to cross the border in the past year.
"We're trying to keep in people's minds that people die every day," she said.
Alexis Blue contributed to this report
