At Harborside, we invited community artist Octavio Hernandez to build an ofrenda in honor of Dia de los Muertos: Day of the Dead, a celebration to honor the ancestors who have passed. Our most recent launch of Skeleton Key pays homage to this Mexican holiday, which is full of life-affirming joy, demonstrating love and respect for deceased family members.
The community ofrenda is located at Harborside Oakland. We welcome you to celebrate the life of loved ones past by contributing to this ofrenda through writing a note, memory, or honoring and adding it to the community altar.
Octavio Hernandez
Local Community Artist
Octavio Hernandez is an artist, community builder, and youth advocate. He was born in Mexico, raised in Northern California, and now calls Oakland home. As an artist, he has most recently painted a mural of Breonna Taylor in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and is currently working on another community mural in East Oakland. Octavio is also an educator, with over 18 years of experience using the arts to foster expressions of intelligent, articulate, mindful young visionaries.
We invited Octavio to build a community ofrenda at Harborside Oakland in honor of Dia de los Muertos: Day of the Dead, a celebration to honor the ancestors who have passed. Our most recent launch of Skeleton Key pays homage to this Mexican holiday, which is full of life-affirming joy, demonstrating love and respect for deceased family members.
“My hope with this offering is that we can see the beauty … in the life we are privileged with — and to tend to that, take care of it. Just like you do the ofrenda. You bring food, water, cognac, whatever it is your loved one enjoyed in life. ”
Octavio discusses how community offerings like this ofrenda creates an opportunity to bring into dialogue the role of death and dying in the human experience. It’s something that affects all of us, yet it’s not something society knows how to speak about. This ofrenda creates space to share those thoughts, ideas, and feelings, and to do so in community with others — with fierce, gentle compassion.