National Museum of Mexican Art

This guide to the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago follows chief curator Cesareo Moreno's yearly ofrendas, the home altars built each October by families, students, and artists that carry real cooked food for the dead. You'll hear about specific dishes prepared, from mole negro to pan de muerto, and the belief that departed souls return hungry for one night. It also traces back to 1982, when six Chicago teachers pooled nine hundred dollars to start telling this story when no institution in the country would.