Is There a Mexican View of Death?

Reviewing social science literature over the past half century, this article identifies a widely held image of what we might call the morbid Mexican. In contrast to people from other cultural traditions, Mexicans are said to scorn and laugh at death and to be comfortable in the presence of death. They are also portrayed as relatively impervious to the emotional impact of death. Through a systematic survey of ethnographic data, particularly concerning funerals and mortuary ritual, the article challenges this portrayal of Mexican national character. It traces the origin and perpetuation of the stereotypical Mexican attitude toward death to the broad dissemination of popular images derived from the Day of the Dead.