As part of its goal to “preserve and promote artistic and cultural expression of and among diverse communities,” the nonprofit Esperanza Peace and Justice Center toasts the dearly departed with displays of community altars, face-painting, live music, a neighborhood procession, tamales, hot chocolate and pan de muerto, and readings of “literary ofrendas to remember our dead, and calavera poems that poke fun at the living and their untimely encounters with la Muerte or la Catrina.”