On November 2nd, The Undocumented Women’s Fund celebrated their fifth annual Día de Muertas, a feminist take on the traditional Mexican holiday. This year, the focus of the event was honoring women, children, and gender nonconforming people who died at the hands of the immigration system. 

The celebration took place at Recirculation, a pay-what-you-can community bookshop in Washington Heights. Colorful paper skulls and flowers were hung from the shelves, and tables were set up for children to color their own paper calaveras—sugar skulls. The centerpiece was the ofrenda, or altar, where attendees could write messages to loved ones who had passed. Tamales and other traditional foods and drinks were being sold, while the program featured Oaxacan dancing, spoken word performances, and pieces by local visual artists. 

“The whole purpose of Día de Muertos is honoring the people that are gone, and for us doing this through beauty is very important,” said Ximena Bustamante, the founder of the Undocumented Women’s Fund and organizer of Sunday’s event. 

Bustamante established the organization on Mother’s Day 2020. Her first initiative provided support to caregivers and heads of households who were excluded from pandemic relief programs. Since then, the UWF’s mission has been to “mobilize resources in the face of the exclusion from most social services and relief programs,” said Bustamante. 

In previous years, other groups have been the focus of Día de Muertas. In 2021, caregivers who passed during the pandemic were honored. In 2024, the event celebrated the lives of women and gender nonconforming people who died due to reproductive injustices. 

According to Bustamante, the idea for Día de Muertas came in part from combining two holidays celebrated in Latin America in November: Día de Muertos and the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25. For Erika Romano, a dancer who performed at the event, this touched home. Romano held back tears as she spoke about her late aunt, who came to America fleeing an abusive relationship. “To see a community and to see everybody that’s here, that’s supportive and that’s showing up… It’s really healing.” 

Also featured in Sunday’s program was a presentation on the UWF’s newest project. The organization is currently working with schools to outline emergency plans and strategies should families be separated due to increasingly hostile immigration authorities. Caroline Jose, a parent, community organizer, and Washington Heights native, connected with Bustamante through this initiative: “This program allows us to help train both teachers and parents within their schools and create what is called a seed that then becomes the people that are trained to help you fill out the forms that are needed to create a family plan.”

According to Bustamante, the focus of the project, like much of the work done at UWF, is to create a community that can share knowledge and resources. “What we have noticed is that there’s no consciousness to what extent this needs to be a collective effort, as opposed to each family figuring out on their own how they are going to protect themselves.” 

Ultimately, for Bustamante, this event is both a celebration and a means of education and mobilization. “It’s a way of seeing that we’re honoring the life of people that are gone… But it’s also fighting for the living,” said Bustamante. “We want our communities to be very aware of what this system looks like and how it kills.”

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