Museum
National Museum of Mexican Art
Community-founded art museum whose October altars are laid with real cooked food for the departed.
0:00≈ 2 min
Location
0:00≈ 2 min
About this audio guide
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.
This audio guide was created using AI.