Enflorar: A Literary Día de los Muertos Ceremony

Enflorar: A Literary Día de los Muertos Ceremony

Presented in partnership between La Sala and Hugo House

 

Thursday, October 30, 2025

6:00–8:00 pm

Hugo House

 

This is not a reading. It is a ceremony. An act of honoring our literary forebearers, our literary community, and our land. A literary celebration of Día de los Muertos rooted in Latine/x tradition.

 

Enflorar—to adorn or cover with flowers in Spanish—is a verb that calls us into a shared ritual of remembrance. On this night, we gather to remember the work and spirit of writers who shaped literary Seattle but are no longer with us, and to recognize the energy they placed into us, an energy that continues to bear fruit today. 

 

What does the life cycle mean for a literary community? What does it mean to remember the writers who came before us? Together, we reflect on these questions through offerings to the Literary Day of the Dead Altar unveiled this evening, a tradition that began last year through the collaboration between La Sala and Hugo House. This altar is not just a structure; it is a nexus point, a place where time folds and the living and the dead meet through language, legacy, and love.

 

Our literary role models are not gone. They live alongside us in their words, in the connections they forged, and in the energy they invested in us. We celebrate community not as a fixed location, but as a constellation of voices, places, and moments in reciprocal relationship.

 

This is a grief ritual, a celebration of life, and a healing act. We gather tonight to recognize language as a tool of memory, as a source of light. Join us in this ceremony of blooming remembrance, where Latine/x voices, ancestral presence, and our literary legacy come alive together.

The House bar will be open to serve alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.