Día de Muertos de San Lorenzo Tezonco

The Day of the Dead is a tradition for Mexican villages. The most important celebration in Iztapalapa occurs around Panteón Civil de Tezonco, where the festivities are characterized by paths made by the inhabitants, meals, processions, masses, skulls and cultural events.

This event is held every year. San Lorenzo Tezonco, one of the original pueblos of Iztapalapa, keeps its own Día de Muertos vigil on 1 and 2 November.

What it looks like here. It is a neighbourhood observance rather than a visitor attraction: families clean and decorate the graves in the pueblo cemetery, build ofrendas at home with cempasúchil, copal, pan de muerto and photographs, and keep vigil through the night. The parish holds masses for the dead on both days, and the streets around the churchyard fill with stalls selling flowers, candles and food.

Why go here instead of Míxquic. Because it is close, it is not overwhelmed, and it is the version the city's own residents take part in. Míxquic receives tens of thousands of visitors on these nights; Tezonco does not.

Practical notes. Iztapalapa is served by Metro line 12 and the Cablebus; the pueblo itself is reached by local transport or taxi. Go in the evening, carry cash and small change, ask before photographing people, and treat the cemetery as what it is — a place where families are sitting with their dead.