Museo de la Máscara

Only the masks for sale can be photographed.

As we exchanged suggestions of sights worth seeing with fellow travellers in San Miguel de Allende, the Museo de la Máscara (Mask Museum) was typically included on the list of must-see venues.

The Mask Museum, unlike the nearby Toy Museum, is not housed in a public building. Rather, the Mask Museum is a private collection housed in a Bed & Breakfast called Casa de la Cuesta at Cuesta de San José 32. We called ahead (415.154.4324) to express our desire to visit the museum. Bill, the B&B owner and mask collector, answered the phone and warmly welcomed us to visit the next morning. 

Every mask has been in a ceremony.

About 15 people showed up for Bill's introduction to the museum. Bill talked for about a half hour telling us how he started collecting masks. Initially, he was a student accompanying more seasoned collectors as they went to country villages to buy masks. Bill then became more fluent in Spanish and culturally attuned. He traveled himself and learned of the ceremonial and personal connections of masks. In fact, all of the masks in Bill's extensive collection have been involved in some ceremonial event.  

Bill and his wife Heidi have lived in SMA for 28 years and built their seven room B&B and the mask museum that contains 600 masks. There is also a shop where masks and local artworks are for sale. Mask prices start at $85 USD and go up to ~$1,000 USD. Credit cards are accepted but cash, either US dollars or Mexican pesos, will net you a discount.

After our tour of the Mask Museum, we accepted an invitation to return the next day for a talk by Heidi about the altars constructed for Day of the Dead.

In a warm and caring way, Heidi explained that the Day of the Dead ceremony began long before the Spanish arrived in the 1500s. It was originally a 2 - 3 month celebration to beckon those souls who had departed to return and enjoy once again the company of those they left behind. Heidi noted that the scent of marigold flowers was used to help the departed find their way back to loved ones.

Additionally, altars are constructed to make the returning souls warmly welcomed. Altars are personal, reflecting the earthly pleasures or characteristics of the departed. Thus, altars may contain a bottle of a favorite tequila or a skeleton-like image of the departed holding a golf club or a cigarette dangling from the mouth. Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) can also be a solemn, privately marked occasion for a family.

The Spanish co-opted this native Indian custom and compressed/aligned the ceremony to be held on the Christian All Souls Day and All Saints Day. General commercialization has since subsumed the holiday into a raucous event of parades, face-painting and skeleton Catrinas adorned, displayed and configured in all sorts of imaginative poses.

Just for the record: La Catrina is officially a skeleton dressed in a beautiful long dress and a broad-brimmed hat, usually decorated with colored ostrich feathers. La Catrina was popularized by the painter Diego Rivera to make fun of wealthy Europeans. The not-so-subtle reminder was that regardless of one's status in life, everyone dies.