The annual All Souls Procession is moving west.
The massively popular event — close to 150,000 attended last year’s procession — has a new route that takes it away from the downtown area and through Barrio Hollywood and the Menlo Park neighborhood, ending as it has since 2012 near the Mercado San Agustín.
Traditionally, the procession began in the downtown area. Five years ago, the finale was moved to the site near the Mercado, which meant participants had to cross under the freeway. The new route will cut out the cost of closing the I-10 Broadway/Congress Street entrances and exits.
At a little more than a mile, the route is about half the distance of past processions. That is likely to save Many Mouths One Stomach, the nonprofit that runs the 28-year-old event, money on barricades — it is estimated they will cost $12,000 this year. The group has budgeted $140,000 for the 2017 procession.
The Nov. 5 event will begin at West Speedway and North Grande Avenue, proceed south on Grande to West St. Mary’s Road, take a short jog east to North Bonita Avenue, and then wend its way south to the Mercado at West Congress Street and South Avenida del Convento.
Although there are cost savings, the new route also goes through old Tucson neighborhoods and runs parallel to the Santa Cruz River. The area is steeped in the culture of Tucson.
That history played a role in the move, according to a posting on the All Souls Procession website. The area has “generations of families who have made their home along the river, memorializing their dead on its banks, visiting it to pray for rain on Día de San Juan, frightening children with tales of La Llorona stalking its depths, engaging with the river as it wove its way through their everyday lives.”
Having thousands walk through her neighborhood is an exciting prospect, said Katherine Medberry, president of the Barrio Hollywood Neighborhood Association.
“We are all excited to share our neighborhood in a positive light, doing something that’s so beautiful for the community.”
The board and neighbors voted unanimously at their September meeting to host the event, she said.
Pat’s Drive In, famous for its chili dogs, is on Grande, about in the middle of the route. There’s a sort of synchronicity to that, said manager Regina Hernandez.
“We’ve been here 60-plus years,” she said. “Many of the souls being honored probably ate here. That’s pretty awesome.”
Pat’s will be open during the procession, she said. “We’ll probably order 10,000 more buns and hot dogs just to be safe.”
This isn’t the first move for the event. For years it began on North Fourth Avenue and East University Boulevard, often making small adjustments for construction. Once the Modern Streetcar began to operate, overhead wires put a limit on the height of puppets and other items participants could carry, and the cost of shutting the streetcar down during the procession was prohibitive. The last several years, the procession began on North Sixth Avenue near the underpass.
The first All Souls Procession was in 1990 when Tucson artist Susan Johnson was searching for a way to honor her father and work through her grief after his death. She was joined by about 25 people. They found it so cathartic they did it again the next year. And the next. There were more and more participants each year. Eventually it became too big to be contained to sidewalks. Permits, police and road barriers became necessary, as did raising the money to pay for everything.
The procession draws participants from around the county. Many of the thousands who walk, memorialize those who have passed with signs, pictures, puppets or other art, and paint their faces in sometimes elaborate skeletal makeup. It’s a somber-yet-joyful event that has, for some, become an essential part of the grieving process.
