When the Day of the Dead Grieves the Mourners  10/13/25

Conversation Overview 

At a time of extreme violence against immigrants and criminalization of social justice, an ancestral celebration that has crossed borders for millennia takes on a different meaning. Memory feeds fortitude, loss inspires courage, and grief informs action. How do these look like from the perspective of Consuelo G. Flores,  the renowned multidisciplinary artist and scholar specializing in the traditional and contemporary history of the Día de Los Muertos celebration?  To find out, join Rosa Garza-Mourino facilitating a timely conversation.

Consuelo Flores MFA, Creative Writing

A Los Angeles-based culture bearer, multidisciplinary artist, writer, and curator who has worked across the cultural, literary, media, and visual arts sectors since the early 1980s. Renowned for her Day of the Dead work, her installations of altars/ofrendas have been exhibited at institutions such as the Disney Concert Hall, ABC7, Craft Contemporary Museum, Irvine Fine Art Center, Self Help Graphics, Cerritos College, Gloria Molina Grand Park, and at various film festivals throughout Los Angeles. Her Day of the Dead work also extends to literary altars, wearable art, and cultural tours with the Metro Transit Authority. She regularly teaches, lectures, and conducts workshops on both traditional and contemporary celebrations of Día de los Muertos, focusing on the structure and meaning of the altar/ofrenda.

Consuelo has been featured for her cultural work by Good Morning America, NPR, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Medium, and all major Los Angeles news stations, and has been interviewed by scholars from Rutgers and Fordham universities.

In 2025, she produced “She Speaks,” the first performance in the Grand Performances Summer Poetry Series and had two 10-minute plays produced in February and one in August, alongside a staged reading of her full-length play in April. She curated Barrio 2100: Generations Into the Future at Avenue 50 Studio and is set to curate the Gloria Molina Grand Park Day of the Dead celebration from October to November 2025 for the fourth year. Her literary work appears in An Illegal Feast (Broadstone Press, July 2025) and as a featured essayist in Fieldnotes on Fortitude (Our Human Family Publishing, September 2025).

Looking ahead, Consuelo has been awarded curatorial duties for the Los Angeles segment of the national 2026 Latinx Freedom Movement Archive and Exhibition Project, highlighting Latino contributions to the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s. This exhibition will launch in July 2026 in five cities across the U.S., coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. She has also been commissioned to curate the 2026 Day of the Dead exhibition and design its commemorative silk screen print for the internationally renowned Self Help Graphics, a cultural center in East Los Angeles.

Rosa Garza-Mourino MA Media and Cultural Studies:

As transdisciplinary educator and scholar Rosa teaches practical applications of analysis tools to the subjects of film, media, arts-based activism, cultural diasporas, and cities, especially Los Angeles as a learning context.  Seeking to make these topics and skills also accessible to early college Humanities students, designed and taught for twelve years the Bridge Service Learning course.  As Director of External Partnerships for the Undergraduate Studies program in the Los Angeles region, she has built relationships and develops collaborations with mission-aligned organizations, positioning our program as a valuable resource for experiential learning. Since 2007, she has run the personalized, real-world learning internship program for undergrads, supported the prior learning program, and has established articulation agreements with local two-year colleges, conservatory schools, and extension programs to streamline the transfer process of their students into our degree completion options.