Marigolds, candles, and portraits of the departed filled the ICA Watershed over the holiday weekend as hundreds of people turned out for East Boston's annual Día de Muertos celebration, a multiday run of music, dance, and remembrance that has grown into one of the neighborhood's signature cultural events. Families built ofrendas, dancers performed in traditional dress, and visitors paused before altars dedicated not just to relatives but to strangers whose organs and tissue had given others a second chance at life.
The celebration was organized by the Veronica Robles Cultural Center, which presented its 2026 Día de Muertos programming in partnership with the Mexican Consulate in Boston, the cities of Boston and Chelsea, the ICA Watershed, and the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra, according to the Veronica Robles Cultural Center. The festivities ran from Thursday, October 29, through Monday, November 2, covering five calendar dates, with free public activities in East Boston and Chelsea that included live music, folkloric dance, food vendors, face painting, Catrina parades, and community ofrendas. As The Boston Globe reported, the Day of the Dead celebrations drew hundreds of people to the ICA Watershed in East Boston, where attendees honored deceased loved ones through memorials, personal reflections, and cultural traditions.
A Tradition Rooted in Personal Loss
The cultural center's founder, Verónica Robles, started the organization 13 years before this year's celebration in memory of her only daughter, who died as a teenager, per the Globe's reporting. Robles has said she wanted to turn sorrow into something positive, and she continues to coordinate events aimed at preserving Latino culture across the region. A separate account from the Christian Science Monitor traces that founding to 2013, following the 2008 death of Robles's daughter, Kithzia, and notes the center's classes and events now draw more than 5,000 people each year.
During Día de los Muertos, deceased souls are believed to return to be with loved ones. The ICA exhibition itself opened on Halloween and continued through November 2, with public access on October 31 and November 1 and guided group tours on November 2. The holiday's traditions include dancing, sharing pan de muerto, and placing portraits on ofrendas decorated with marigold flowers and lighted candles.
Dancers, Butterflies, and a Salvadoran Tradition
Performances during the celebration included the Salvadoran traditional dance Flor de Izote, named for El Salvador's national flower, according to the Globe's account. Esther Gómez shared a story about a monarch butterfly.
Young people enrolled in the cultural center's programs, which connect youth to Latin American culture, helped plan the weekend celebration and performed as dancers themselves, the Globe reported. Melisa Paulino-Smith, a 48-year-old Framingham resident of Mexican heritage, visited the event with her young daughter Eliana and said she wanted to pass the tradition on to her. The Globe's reporting places East Boston's population at roughly half Hispanic, underscoring why the neighborhood has become a hub for the celebration.
Honoring Organ Donors and Immigrant Lives Lost
New England Donor Services partnered with the cultural center for a remembrance program at the ICA Watershed on October 31, setting up an altar featuring portraits of more than 50 organ and tissue donors, according to ExploreBoston.com. The portraits, per the Globe's reporting, honored people who gave life to others through donation. The ofrenda exhibition ran daily from October 31 through November 2, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; the remembrance program took place October 31 from 11 a.m. to noon. Ingrid Palacios, a multicultural program manager, was involved in coordinating the observance.
A Celebration Amid Broader Anxiety
That expansion comes as immigration enforcement continues to weigh on Latino communities nationwide. ICE's ongoing deportation efforts still unnerve many Latino immigrants across the country, with serious effects on community life, according to The Guardian. The same report noted that Worcester held its own public Día de Muertos gathering on October 24, drawing about 2,000 people after the city had canceled its celebration the prior year, while Henderson, Kentucky, canceled its 2025 event over fears that ICE might arrest undocumented attendees before reviving the tradition this year.
Chelsea held its own festival the same weekend, with a procession from East Boston to Chelsea and a costumed parade around Chelsea Square scheduled for November 1 from 1 to 5 p.m., according to the Chelsea Record. Taken together, the festivities reflect how the cultural center's Día de Muertos celebration has turned personal grief into a shared, growing tradition for the region's Latino community.
