Indra Arriago Delgado prepares her ofrenda for a loved one who passed for Día de los Muertos. (Mizelle Mayo/Alaska Public Media)
Día de los Muertos or “Day of the Dead” is a Mexican and Mexican-diaspora celebration of people who have died and people have been celebrating the holiday publicly in Anchorage for 19 years. According to belief, in early November every year, the dead can visit the human realm and the living welcome them with altars displaying lights, food, flowers, photos and art. The holiday has Indigenous roots and is filled with both joy and mourning.
Event organizers Indra Arriaga Delgado and Itzel Zagal were recently preparing Out North Gallery in Anchorage for the holiday, helping direct people who set up altars and art around the room. Delgado said Día de los Muertos is a day when people connect and celebrate ancestors and loved ones who have died.
“It’s a way of spending time with them because we believe that on this day, they come back and you coexist with them,” Delgado said. “You put up an altar. You put your best out there because just like any guest of honor, any person that you love who’s coming to visit you, you’re going to be at your best.”
Advertisement
The altars people are preparing are colorful and covered with decorations, photographs and electric candles. By Thursday, the room will be filled with around 15 altars, each designed and created by a different person or organization. And on the holiday, the altars will hold offerings of water, salt, various foods and pan de muerto, a type of bread made for Día de los Muertos.
The celebration in Anchorage starts with a ceremony outside the gallery when co-organizer Zagal calls to the four winds and calls to welcome ancestors. She burns copal, a fragrant tree resin and her 10-year-old son plays a caracol seashell instrument, which he first started to learn to play when he was 3 years old. Lights on the altars will also help guide the dead to the celebration.
Oliviah Franke arranges paper mairgolds around their ofrenda for Día de los Muertos. (Mizelle Mayo/Alaska Public Media)
This was the first year Oliviah Franke was making a public altar with an offering or ofrenda.
“We have the three layers, the three tiers of the ofrenda,” Franke said. “We’ve got red and orange tissue paper flowers decorating it. We’re using battery-powered candles. And then we’ve got a calavera, the sugar skull, block print we made and we put that up. ”
This altar was created in memory of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people and it’s through Franke’s work with Native movement as a community education coordinator.
At home, Franke’s been celebrating for the past five years; it’s been part of how they’ve been connecting to their Mexican heritage. They were adopted as a child into a Guatemalan and American family but they always knew they had ancestral connections to Mexico.
Advertisement
“It’s been such a journey to feel really secure in my identities and so, having a tradition that I know I will be grounded in each year has been a part of claiming that identity and being more confident in that for myself, and finding community,” Franke said. “Alaska feels very far away from Mexico and my roots.”
Zagal helps organize the annual event and she said she treasures the cultural connection of celebrating Día de los Muertos in Anchorage.
Indra Arriaga Delgado decorates her ofrenda with skeletons, as they are seen as a promise of resurrection, not as a symbol of death. (Mizelle Mayo/Alaska Public Media)
“I see Día de los Muertos as a place to create a cultural resistance,” Zagal said. “For a community, it’s a place where the children of the community, and the new generations that are born here and are growing here can have a closer experience to the roots, where they come from.”
She said the event has been really important for cultural healing too.
“Especially in an environment where being Mexican, being Latin American, or being from Guatemala, El Salvador — we went through a hard time, during previous years,” Zagal said. “This was our way to create a place to connect to identity.”
But the event is also open to the entire community in Anchorage; people are invited to create altars and visit the gallery, no matter their heritage.
Advertisement
Founder and organizer Delgado has seen how significant the event has been for people over the past 19 years, especially for those processing death.
“One of the reasons that we have Día de muertos in the way that we have it is because it’s open. And you don’t have to be Latina. You don’t have to be Mexican. You don’t have to be Indigenous, because it’s something that we all share,” Delgado said. “It creates a space for somebody to come when they need it… It’s part of healing.”
Delgado grew up celebrating Día de los Muertos and she said it’s shaped the way she understands death.
“As my grandmother died as my father died… it takes on a different meaning. Because they’re here,” Delgado said. “It makes me not afraid of death. That doesn’t mean that I’m not afraid of dying. I think everybody’s afraid of dying. But I understand it. I understand that it’s natural. It’s good. It’s important to go back in to the earth and become part of memory.”
And Delgado said it influences her approaches to the material world.
Advertisement
“We have a saying, ‘There is more time than life.’ And for me, the values that come with Día de los Muertos make it so that I understand that I am impermanent in this plane. And so I can’t hold onto things that nobody possesses,” Delgado said.
But for as long as she’s still in the material world, Delgado will put up altars every year: the water, the salt, the flowers, the pan de muerto and the light that guides the dead to the celebration. And she and the other organizers invite Alaska to join.
RELATED: Alaska Native youth preserve traditions by preserving traditional food at Elders and Youth Conference
A downed spruce tree partially hangs over Lake Otis Parkway during the windstorm on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Bill Roth / ADN)
Here’s a list of peak wind gusts measured at various locations by the National Weather Service across Southcentral Alaska in Sunday’s storm. Crews were working Sunday evening to restore electricity to thousands of people in Anchorage and the Mat-Su.
Advertisement
Gusts of more than 60 mph were recorded at various locations across the region, with gusts exceeding 80 mph at several locations on the Anchorage Hillside and higher elevations.
High winds, rain batter Anchorage and Mat-Su, with power outages reported across region
The readings were collected from a variety of sources with varying equipment and exposures, the weather service noted. Not all data listed are considered official, the weather service said. See the full list here.
Anchorage
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport: 62 mph
Merrill Field: 66 mph
Advertisement
Lake Hood: 59 mph
JBER – Elmendorf: 69 mph
JBER – Fort Richardson: 73 mph
Northeast Anchorage: 75 mph
South Anchorage: 75 mph
Advertisement
Glen Alps: 84 mph
Potter Valley: 91 mph
Bear Valley: 110 mph*
Arctic Valley: 107 mph*
Glenn Hwy Eagle River Bridge: 88 mph
Advertisement
Glenn Hwy S Curves: 62 mph
South Fork Eagle River: 86 mph
Birchwood Airport: 53 mph
Bird Point: 75 mph
Alyeska Weather Station: 112 mph
Advertisement
Alyeska Summit: 99 mph
Portage Glacier: 84 mph
Matanuska Valley
Palmer Airport: 67 mph
Wasilla Airport: 47 mph
Fishhook: 47 mph
Advertisement
Duck Flats: 6 mph
Susitna Valley
Willow: 36 mph
Eastern Kenai Peninsula
Seward Airport: 51 mph
Kenai Lake: 33 mph
Granite Creek: 25 mph
Advertisement
Seward / Sterling Hwys (Y): 42 mph
Whittier Airport: 60 mph*
Western Kenai Peninsula
Kenai Airport: 53 mph
Soldotna Airport: 39 mph
Kenai Beach: 46 mph
Advertisement
Sterling Highway at Jean Lake: 64 mph
Nikiski: 36 mph
Anchor Point: 31 mph
Homer Airport: 46 mph
Homer Boat Harbor: 42 mph
Advertisement
Seldovia Airport: 41 mph
Eastern Prince William Sound
Cordova Airport: 73 mph
Cordova Marine Ferry Terminal: 74 mph
Valdez Airport: 25 mph
Valdez Port: 23 mph
Advertisement
Thompson Pass: 47 mph
Copper River Basin
Gulkana Airport: 56 mph
Chitina: 37 mph
Denali Hwy at MacLaren River: 38 mph
Eureka: 36 mph
Advertisement
Kodiak Island
Kodiak Airport: 52 mph
Kodiak – Pasagshak Road: 61 mph
Akhiok: 45 mph
*Denotes site stopped transmitting wind data following report of highest wind gust.
“Observations are collected from a variety of sources with varying equipment and exposures. We thank all volunteer weather observers for their dedication. Not all data listed are considered official.”
Alaska Airlines is getting called out on social media after a clip surfaced showing a famous UFC fighter get into a dispute on-board until he was escorted off his flight. The video shows Russian hall of fame athlete Khabib Nurmgomedov debating airline staff in the U.S. while he was sitting in the exit row on the plane.
The video of the incident, which reportedly took place at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas on Saturday, shows an employee telling the 36-year-old mixed martial artist he either has to switch seats or get off the plane. “They’re not comfortable with you sitting in the exit row,” the worker added.
“It’s not fair,” said Nurmgomedov, who was reportedly flying to Los Angeles, to which the worker replied, “It is fair. Yes, it is.”
Nurmgomedov explained that when he was checking in for the flight, he was asked he if knew English, to which he said he did. The airline worker responded, “I understand that, but it’s also off of their judgement. I’m not going to do this back-and-forth. I will call a supervisor.”
Advertisement
The employee reiterated the athlete could either take a different seat on the plane, or staff could “go ahead and escort” him off the flight. She asked “which one are we doing?” and then replied to Nurmgomedov saying they were going to have to rebook him on a different flight.
Across social media, people have been calling out Alaska Airlines asking why they had him removed from the plane. Many called for others to boycott the airline, and some claimed the staff were profiling Nurmgomedov, who is Muslim.
“Why did you remove Khabib from your plane? His fans need to know! I hope he sues you,” an Instagram user wrote on the airline’s most recent post.
“Are you aware of who Khabib is? His legacy surpasses that of the entire airline,” another chimed in.
“Shame on you, Alaska Airline. We all boycotting them,” a TikTok user added.
Advertisement
“What is the reason!? Because they don’t feel comfortable he’s sitting by a window?” another questioned.
Neither Nurmgomedov or Alaska Airlines have yet commented on the situation.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – With a storm approaching and high winds in the forecast for a portion of Southcentral Alaska, experts recommend preparing for potential power outages and taking safety precautions.
Experts with the State of Alaska, Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management recommended taking the initiative early in case of power outages due to strong weather.
Julie Hasquet with Chugach Electric in Anchorage said Saturday the utility company has 24/7 operators in case of outages.
“We watch the weather forecast, and absolutely, if there are power outages, we will send crews out into the field to respond,” Hasquet said.
Advertisement
She echoed others, saying it’s best to prepare prior to a storm and not need supplies rather than the other way around.
“With the winds that are forecast for tonight and perhaps into Sunday, people should just be ready that it could be some challenging times, and to be aware and cautious and kind of have your radar up,” Hasquet said.
For the latest weather updates and alerts, download the Alaska’s Weather Source app.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/adn/FJF52QJA4JDEZKLNNPODZ3NRCU.JPG "80 mph, 90 mph and higher: Here’s a rundown of peak gusts recorded across Southcentral Alaska in Sunday’s storm")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25822586/STK169_ZUCKERBERG_MAGA_STKS491_CVIRGINIA_A.jpg "Meta is highlighting a splintering global approach to online speech")
