On this episode of Passport, we go to Oaxaca, the heart of Mexico, to find out what the Day of the Dead really is. It’s history, it’s present and it’s future.

We’ll sit at the dinner table with spirits. We’ll dive into folklore, fables and rituals to see how this celebration has lasted so many life times, through so much hardship, and repression. We’ll hear the stories of the people closest to the festival and discover the power of storytelling, and reinvention of stories in Mexico, that have kept the festival alive. But how can death be so celebrated in a country with such a high mortality rate? And why do people look to this hub of culture, history and creativity for inspiration in dark times, for better or worse?

Plus, we’ll meet a witch who has drawn from the history, used the spirits, a forgotten tradition and the folk music of Mexico to turn it into a powerful forward thinking statement about sex, death and gender.

La Bruja De Texcoco.

For more, including links to the things we talked about, and the places we visited, plus a full transcript, visit: https://frequencymachine.com/passport

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.