Corina Riggs lives in Los Angeles but grew up in Tucson. She returns to her hometown for the procession. In one hand, she’ll carry a photo of her father, Vincent Riggs, who was 73 when congestive heart failure took him in March, and in the other, one of her fraternal grandmother, Elizabeth Riggs, who was 95 when she died in October.
“He thought everything was so neat,” Riggs says about her father, who long taught Spanish at Pima Community College, and whose laugh still remains fresh for her. “He was exposed to so many different things. He was in the Peace Corps, lived in Mexico, played the accordion, piano, guitar, and he taught me Spanish. If he were here he would think this is so cool. He loved Halloween, he loved childlike things. … I think he would love the procession; I’m sure he had been. He just embraced people’s differences. He thought he was Mexican — he had a mustache and played guitar in the mariachi conference.”
Riggs grandmother lived in Denver, but was a big part of her life, as well. “We spent every Christmas with her. She was the best cook. She always sent letters and remembered your birthday and holidays, and she had a beautiful garden. She had the sweetest apples I’ve ever eaten.”
Riggs will also walk thinking of her father’s brother, Byron Riggs, who still lives in Denver and cared for her grandmother until her death. He lost his brother and mother in an eight-month span. “I can’t imagine how hard it has been for him,” she says.
