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On Sunday night Mrs. C and I had dinner with our daughter and son in law. We wanted their advice on things to see and do in the place we're going this weekend, a location they have already visited (in no small part due to the wonderful help of one of our CDP colleagues). More about all of that by the weekend.
We wanted to try a newish restaurant in The Grove neighborhood with the odd name of Sanctuaria. Patrons don't get blasted with the Rolling Stones playing Gimme Shelter as they enter. Rather, it's an Americanized tapas place with a beautifully done, lightly applied, Mexican Day of the Dead (El Dia de los Muertos) theme. Very sophisticated. The food was excellent, the prices were moderate and the people were great. Definitely recommended.Things keep going round and round today on Downtown St. Louis 365. 
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I mentioned that there wasn't much activity in our Latino neighborhood for El Dia de Los Muertos. Still, when I walked the strip there were all sorts of little details. Part of Mexican tradition for the day is the construction of small altars honoring the dead. This one, in a store window, celebrates the painter Frieda Kahlo. I love the intensity and intimacy of her work. A few years ago we got to visit her museum in Mexico City, in the home she shared with her husband, the muralist Diego Rivera. She died at age 47. They remember her on Cherokee Street.
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November 1 is All Saints Day in the Christian calendar. It is also El Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of The Dead, in Mexico and other western Hispanic countries. St. Louis has a small Latin American community compared to many US cities but there was an observance along Cherokee Street. This little memorial reminds us of 1,060 women in Ciudad Juarez murdered "to date." I don't know what the timeline is. The sign says "hasta la feha." Feha is not a Spanish word I could find in any dictionary. It may be a mispelling of fecha, date, but the reference is surely to the bloodshed in Mexico's narco wars.
