In Mexico, the Dead Still Get Their Favorite Food

"México es poner en la ofrenda la comida favorita de quien ya se fue."

Putting the favorite food of someone who's gone on the ofrenda.

Look closely at an ofrenda and you'll find more than marigolds and candles.

There's usually a can of Coca-Cola. A pack of cigarettes. A plate of mole, a shot of tequila, the pan dulce someone always bought too much of.

Where I grew up, we remembered the dead by being quiet and serious.

Here, you remember them by what they liked. Their song, their snack, their terrible taste in soap operas.

Grief in Mexico has a menu. And once a year, the people who left are invited back to eat.